Network function virtualization (NFV) allows edge devices to host different types of virtual network functions (VNFs) and support Computing in the Network. Therefore, an edge device can abstract multiple VNFs of different infrastructure providers (InPs) as services and serve them at different times to act as a tenant for different InPs. Deploying edge devices is expensive and difficult to manage. Hence, crowdsourced edge devices can be used. To ensure the quality and availability of the services and the privacy of sensitive data of the service stakeholders, it is extremely important to establish a service level agreement (SLA) between an edge device owner and an InP. For monitoring of SLA compliance and enforcing accountability, a trusted platform is required. The traditional NFV management authority cannot be trusted due to its centralized characteristics. In this article, we propose a blockchain-powered framework for the SLA compliance of edge devices offering VNFs as services and introduce a smart contract-driven framework to establish trust in edge-based NFV. We analyze the performance of the proposed framework in the context of a private blockchain network.

中文翻译：

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用于众包边缘网络功能虚拟化的区块链 SLA 合规性

网络功能虚拟化 (NFV) 允许边缘设备托管不同类型的虚拟网络功能 (VNF) 并支持网络计算。因此，边缘设备可以将不同基础设施提供商 (InP) 的多个 VNF 抽象为服务，并在不同时间为其提供服务，充当不同 InP 的租户。部署边缘设备既昂贵又难以管理。因此，可以使用众包边缘设备。为了确保服务的质量和可用性以及服务利益相关者敏感数据的隐私，在边缘设备所有者和 InP 之间建立服务级别协议 (SLA) 极为重要。为了监控 SLA 合规性和强制执行问责制，需要一个可信的平台。传统的 NFV 管理权限由于其中心化的特点而无法信任。在本文中，我们为提供 VNF 作为服务的边缘设备的 SLA 合规性提出了一个区块链驱动的框架，并引入了一个智能合约驱动的框架来建立对基于边缘的 NFV 的信任。我们在私有区块链网络的背景下分析了所提出框架的性能。