Abstract

The virtualization of services and network functions is one of the base technologies used massively in 5G networks. It allows designing and deploying new services in a simple and scalable way. But it also introduces the need to manage the security of network elements that are deployed in the cloud, in an infrastructure that is not, in most cases, owned by network providers. In this context, the concept of Level of Trust (LoT) arises as a metric that allows reviewing how reliable the virtualized elements of a new function or service are as a preliminary step to its deployment in a network infrastructure that, in turn, time, it will be virtualized. An intelligent management of the Level of Trust should allow the automatic verification of the LoT in the virtualized elements that are going to be deployed, thus accelerating the process of accepting these new services. Network management based on "Intents" or "Intents" (Intent-based Networking or INB) allows the definition of the levels of quality of service and security that is to be provided to a new service. Those intents are converted to a list of virtualized elements that must be deployed, Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that must be met, and the configurations required on the virtualized elements to reach those SLAs. Precisely, the management of the LoT becomes especially important in INB where the definition of the objectives to be achieved is done in a declarative way of intentions. In this project, "Smart Contracts" will be used, which can be parameterized through "intents". The execution of these Smart Contracts will be done using Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT or Distributed Ledger Technology) infrastructures such as “blockchains”, guaranteeing access control and traceability over the automatic execution of these contracts. All this applied to network slicing contexts and within the regulatory framework of advanced 5G and 6G technologies, especially with regard to user privacy. The traceability provided by the system will increase the level of reliability by users of network slicing technology in vertical markets.