QoSChain: Provisioning Inter-AS QoS in Software-Defined Networks with Blockchain

Data flows of various applications, such as video conferencing, telesurgery, online-gaming, etc., require particular treatment regarding Quality of Service (QoS) because of their sensitivity to such parameters as high bandwidth, low delay, and so on. However, provisioning of QoS-based routing services across Autonomous Systems (ASes) poses gruelling challenges due to the distributed nature and business confidentially hesitations. This study presents a novel blockchain-aided QoS-enabled inter-AS routing framework, QoSChain (QC), by blending merits of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Blockchain technologies. QC framework introduces a coordination framework with mutually distrusting participants that eliminates centralized mediators in provisioning QoS among SDN-enabled ASes. Also, QC reduces the time to set up an end-to-end (E2E) path and the number of messages exchanged and processed by SDN controllers for a QoS flow. Furthermore, it alleviates the concerns of network operators regarding potentially sensitive information disclosure resulting from the required information sharing for QoS-based cross-AS paths by masking details of any confidential information. Experimental results verify the feasibility of the proposed framework on E2E QoS-based routing among SDN networks. This work aims at being a useful primer for researchers in providing insights on how blockchain can be deployed in QoS-enabled routing.