Blockchain based Telecom Infrastructure Marketplace Contents Blockchain based Telecom Infrastructure Marketplace ............................................................................. 1 Contributors .................................................................................................................................................. 3 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 4 1.1. Business Scenario .......................................................................................................................... 4 1.2. Drivers ........................................................................................................................................... 5 1.3. Problem Statement ....................................................................................................................... 5 1.4. Values ............................................................................................................................................ 6 2. Asset Market Place................................................................................................................................ 6 2.1. Current Assets Marketplace process ............................................................................................ 6 2.2. Challenges of existing Assets Marketplaces ................................................................................. 6 2.3. Assets Marketplace: Blockchain Solution ..................................................................................... 7 2.4. Generic Blockchain-based MarketPlace: proposed 5G deployment Scenarios ............................ 7 3. Assets Marketplace: Use Cases ............................................................................................................. 8 3.1. Scenario 1: Energy Market Place .................................................................................................. 8 3.2. Scenario 2: 5G Cell Re-enforcement /Densification through Telecom Infrastructure Marketplace .............................................................................................................................................. 9 3.2.1. Macro design............................................................................................................................. 9 3.2.2. Actors and roles involved in this scenario .............................................................................. 10 3.2.3. Smart Contract Inventory ....................................................................................................... 11 3.2.4. Details workflows .................................................................................................................... 12 3.3. Scenario 3: 5G Cell Re-enforcement / Densification through Telecom Infrastructure Marketplace (extended to Energy as asset) ........................................................................................... 12 3.4. Scenario 4a: 5G Cell Re-enforcement / Densification through Telecom Infrastructure Marketplace and Energy Marketplace .................................................................................................... 13 cooperation between two Marketplaces (Terms and conditions / Smart Contract between the two Marketplaces to be defined .................................................................................................................... 13 3.5. Scenario 4b: Initial 5G Country / City / White Zone / Stadium Cell deployment and Re- enforcement / Densification through Telecom Infrastructure Marketplace and Energy Marketplace . 14 cooperation between two Marketplaces (Terms and conditions / Smart Contract between the two Marketplaces to be defined .................................................................................................................... 14
Transcript
Blockchain based Telecom Infrastructure Marketplace
Contents Blockchain based Telecom Infrastructure Marketplace ............................................................................. 1
9. Champions .......................................................................................................................................... 29
CSPs know they will face a huge CAPEX issue in the coming years (CAPEX will increase 60% [2020-2023]
according to McKinsey & Company, White paper 2018).
Therefore, reducing dramatically deployment cost (Zero-Capex model) as well as Energy consumption
(expected to be 3 times for 5G) becomes key objective. Besides, mobile traffic growth is continuously and
heavily increasing and 80% is Indoor generated. In this regards, CSPs shall bring 5G Mobile Access
Networks closer to Users (Country, City, White Zone, Stadium, Factory 4.0, Enterprise) to meet requested
5G eMBB and uRLLC services.
CSPs seek new Telecom Infrastructure and Energy Sourcing, Deployment and Investment models to
overcome this Challenge.
CSPs are struggling with deployment of Small Cells in 4G and the situation will become very critical
for 5G mainly in Urban areas where large number of challenges need to be overcome (e.g.
Municipality regulation, Frequency licences, Backhauling, Energy..) where fast pace deployment
plan is required
Global small cell 5G network market valued USD 381 million in 2018; USD 3,495 million by 2025;
CAGR of 37.2% between 2019 and 2025 (Source Zion Market Research)
CSPs would like to order 5G passive infrastructures made available by some actors to allow
sourcing On Demand-basis (e.g. under Auction-based model) rather than under traditional
costly renting model to perform some Network Mobile Network deployment scenarios
Potential real use cases
The flexible passive infrastructure may be ordered for reinforcing existing infrastructure during
a temporary event at a crowded location: to ensure connectivity of a stadium, coverage of a
white area, or a country for a given period (e.g. 5G, RAN Sharing)
More precisely, CSP would like to automatically Discover, Query & Find in a “Passive
infrastructure” Marketplace the frequency, the cell (e.g. high altitude platforms, WiFi Access
Point), the passive infrastructure (e.g. Tower co), the backhaul (flexible satellite connection) for
such dedicated purpose and need
To move away from traditional costly Make / Buy / Rent models of Mobile Network Resources
to an Auction-based model that is more efficient and transparent and most appropriate for such
use cases
The Catalyst is exploring Blockchain-based Telecom Infrastructure & Energy Marketplace as a potential
promising solution
1.2. Drivers
Challenges: Top 6 technical and business drivers
Challenge 1. Continuous Coverage Improvement
Challenge 2. Spectrum Efficiency
Challenge 3. Continuous Capacity Enhancement
Challenge 4. Energy Efficiency
Challenge 5. Lower Backhaul cost
Challenge 6. Agile Delivery and Autonomic /AI-driven Management of 5G eMBB and uRLLC services
1.3. Problem Statement
As a.. I need to So that I can To do this I need to I know I am successful when
Service Provider seek new Telecom Infrastructure and Energy Sourcing, Deployment and Investment models
reduce dramatically deployment cost (Zero-Capex model) as well as Energy consumption (expected to be 3 times for 5G) becomes key objective. Besides, mobile traffic growth is continuously and heavily increasing and 80% is Indoor generated.
bring 5G Mobile Access Networks closer to Users (Country, City, White Zone, Stadium, Factory 4.0, Enterprise) to meet requested 5G eMBB, uRLLC and MTC services.
i am able to build capacity - infrastructure and associated energy supplies based on needs, supported by varied business models
Asset Provider connect to a digital Blockchain-based market place that supports new business models (like on-demand purchase / rent; auction)
sell / share / lease my assets to service providers providing new age services with 5G
on-board assets, create asset offers, define contract agreements on the fly in the market place
I am able to close contracts seamlessly with service providers and get the billing done in an automated fashion
Regulator / Auditor
review events in the market place
make sure all market place transactions are happening as per regulatory guidelines
audit and verify on regular basis
regulatory guidelines are followed and enforced by all stakeholders and malpractices are curtailed
EU Regulator <ECO 30>
monitor and guide the energy market place
make sure all market place transactions are happening as per regulatory guidelines
support and guide energy eco system in moving away from current model of producing and consuming Energy and associated processes towards a « Green model » to meet the EU Energy regulation (ECO 30)
EU Energy regulations (ECO 30) are established
3rd party sponsor fund infrastructure projects to seize sponsoring opportunities the Telecom Infrastructure
financially support eco system stakeholders and have my financial business
establish as a sponsor in the market place, flexible to support new biz models
I am able to fund infra projects as per new business models and reward Service Providers’ customer’s usage of the digital services built upon the
Marketplace may offer me to reward the usage/consumption of services(e.g.Connectivity, Data) by Service Providers' customers delivered by networks through selected assets (Infarstructure)
Infrastructure Marketplace and see my brand exhibited
Table 1 Problem Statements from varied Stakeholders
1.4. Values
Green Initiatives, Renewable energy
Energy Provider, Regulator / Auditor - At least 40% cuts in greenhouse gas emissions (from 1990 levels)- At least 32% share for renewable energy- At least 32.5% improvement in energy efficiency
2. Asset Market Place
2.1. Current Assets Marketplace process
Asset Providers need to describe their assets using some well-known format
Asset Providers need to advertise their asset on a proprietary platform (marketplace)
Asset Providers need to approach possible Service Providers and drive their attention to their
platforms (marketplace)
Service Providers need to visit different proprietary platforms (marketplaces) to identify
required assets
Service Providers need to identify most suitable assets and prepare one or multiple offers,
according to the rules of the given selected platform (marketplace)
Asset Providers need to manually review offers and select best ones
Service Providers need to perform payments for different assets using the different systems
present on each considered platforms (marketplace)
Asset Providers need to manually clear orders with auditors
2.2. Challenges of existing Assets Marketplaces
Assets offers are posted on different platforms (marketplaces)
Service Providers need to post requests on different platforms
Complexity of assets discovery increases and best assets might be missed
Selection of assets requests is done manually
Delay and complexity of selection reduce assets providers’ ROI
Assets payments is done using different systems
Service Providers need to set up and manage different accounts with increased overhead
and costs
Clearing of usage agreements is done manually
Usage agreements clearing is delayed for regulated assets
Auditors APIs integration for different marketplace and platforms is costly and complex
2.3. Assets Marketplace: Blockchain Solution
● A transparent open marketplace for posting of assets offers, requests, automated matching and
payments settlement with a tamper-proof audit trails resulting in:
● A real-time asset offers and requests discovery and optimal assets matching
● The maximization of ROI for Asset Providers and best assets selection for Service Providers
● A unique payment system to speed up assets access
● An easy-to-review audit trail and fast usage agreements clearing for auditors
● Reduced settlement times due:
● Asset and Service Providers engage through a trusted block chain-based infrastructure
● Payment performed using interoperable cryptocurrency
● Immutable and trusted audit trails accessible in real-time
● Significant reduction in the cost of advertising and searching for required assets due to the
reduced time to integrate with a unique marketplace
Criterion 3: Publication date Buying the older offer(s)
The Policy is: Buying from one/many producers (the older offers with the lowest prices that their Qoffer
sum satisfies Qrequest).
Once matching proposals have been done, consumers have to accept one, and once this has been done,
the corresponding transaction is recorded in the marketplace Blockchain.
Below is a view on e2e solution design
Figure 1 Blockchain based Energy Market Place
3.2. Scenario 2: 5G Cell Re-enforcement /Densification through Telecom Infrastructure
Marketplace
This scenario addresses the following top 6 requirements:
Requirement 1. Continuous Coverage Improvement
Requirement 2. Spectrum Efficiency
Requirement 3. Continuous Capacity Enhancement
Requirement 4. Energy Efficiency
Requirement 5. lowering Backhaul cost
Requirement 6: Delivery of 3 network Slices (eMBB, uRLLC, MTC)
3.2.1. Macro design
The figure below depicts this scenario. This scenario implies the only a Blockchain-based Telecom
Infrastructure Marketplace. The Energy is not considered as an asset in this Marketplace. The left hand
side corresponds to the Blockchain-based Telecom Infrastructure Marketplace with its actors and their
interactions (transactions).
Figure 2 5G Cell Re-enforcement /Densification through Telecom Infrastructure Marketplace
3.2.2. Actors and roles involved in this scenario The table below lists the Actors and associated roles involved in this scenario. It describes the
roles of each actor.
Actors Roles example
Service Provider Provide a telco service (and declared as a telco service provider to a regulation authority)) - order a flexible infrastructure (the whole infrastructure or only some component) - Exchange token for the infrastructure, thanks to its services revenues, to the different owners of the infrastructure. - May be sponsors for the infrastructure (provide data analytics of UE connectivity with the 3rd party)
e.g. Telco operators such as Orange, Vodafone, …
Infrastructure Provider
Own a physical infrastructure Offer a physical infrastructure for a location to deploy a type of antenna within a type of infrastructure (aerial (balloon, drone) terrestrial (tower, building, home, billboard) for an area, a location, a type of coverage (indoor, outdoor), for a characteristics of an antenna (length, width, height, weight) and for a date with different options - electricity - guard service - level 1-2 management (basic management: on/off, cell replacement) The location offer must be authorized by the regulatory authority if it is required (outdoor coverage).
residential customer (femto), airport
Cell service provider
- install a cell within an infrastructure - manage a programmable cell Offer the management of a cell for a type of frequency, a power, a tilt, within an area and a location, for a date.
Telco vendors (such as Nokia), Vertical
The offer must be authorized by the regulatory authority if it is required (outdoor coverage). Note A cell provider may also offer the infrastructure.
Regulator/Auditor
Provide the authorization to operate an infrastructure, a cell or a frequency for a type of service (e.g. mobile service, fixed service) if required. Verify the installation of the Telecom infrastructure by auditing the transactions stored in ledgers (power, location, tilt, service, …)
Telco Regulator
Frequency provider
Owner of a spectrum band (PMR, Satellite provider, Fixed Wireless Access) which could be proposed for (mobile or fixed providers) services providers with regulatory authorization, if any. Or it could be used to share the management of an unlicenced spectrum to avoid interference such as WiFi Access point in a mall. Offer a spectrum band (e.g. wifi canal number) within an area, a location, a date, the power associated and the type of frequency (e.g. unlicensed, licensed).
television spectrum, new auction spectrum (e.g., microwave frequencies), satellite operators
Wholesale Connectivity provider
Connect the cell to the service provider infrastructure. Offer the connectivity of a cell within a location, an area, a date, a type of connectivity (XDSL, fibber (WDM PON), Satellite) the SLA should provide some KPI (e.g. up/down throughput, packet loss rate, data volume up/down)
Satellite providers, Orange/Vodafone
3rd party The third party sponsor the infrastructure for an area which it could monetized (e.g. a mall, airport) with advertisement)
Fund Provider
On demand infrastructure Marketplace / Broker
Manage the Auction-based model transaction DLT
Figure 3 Actors and Roles involved in Blockchain based Telecom Infrastructure Market Place
3.2.3. Smart Contract Inventory
Different smart contracts may be used to manage the different transactions of a Telco Infrastructure
marketplace. Smart contracts should be used i) to automate and secure transaction and ii) to provide
traceability of the overall Telco infrastructures between those different partners since each transaction
is stored in an architecture based on Distributed Leger Technology. Finally, the transactions are stored in
a secured distributed ledger. The lifetime of a smart contract is thus saved. A smart contract execution
is composed of 3 successive tasks:
1) Execution environment verification: the smart contract verifies the validity of the identity of the
different actors for a given transaction. It verifies also the solvency of each financial account of the
partners for a financial transaction, by reading previous financial transactions.
It may stop the execution of the contract in case the environment is no longer trusted, or conditions are
not met.
2) Terms and Process execution as described in the smart-contract (e.g. creation/offer/request/order).
The smart-contract may request or deliver services through API of a BSS service portal of a partner
which executes the process.
3) Transaction generation with the key performance indicators (KPIs) of the good execution of a process.
In case of financial transitions, the smart contract will also exchange financial token associated to the
transaction if the KPIs related to the contract are respected.
3.2.4. Details workflows The figure below depicts the workflows between actors of the Blockchain-based Telecom
Infrastructure Marketplace.
Figure 4 Workflows of Blockchain based Telecom Infrastructure Market Place
The figure below depicts this scenario. This scenario implies a cooperation between two Marketplaces
(Terms and conditions Smart Contract) Blockchain-based Telecom Infrastructure Marketplaces and
Blockchain-based Energy Marketplaces
Figure 6 5G Cell Re-enforcment / Densification through Telecom Infrastructure Marketplace and Energy Marketplace
3.5. Scenario 4b: Initial 5G Country / City / White Zone / Stadium Cell deployment and
Re-enforcement / Densification through Telecom Infrastructure Marketplace and
Energy Marketplace
cooperation between two Marketplaces (Terms and conditions / Smart Contract
between the two Marketplaces to be defined
This scenario addresses the following top 6 requirements:
Requirement 1. Continuous Coverage Improvement
Requirement 2. Spectrum Efficiency
Requirement 3. Continuous Capacity Enhancement
Requirement 4. Energy Efficiency
Requirement 5. lowering Backhaul cost
Requirement 6 : Delivery of 3 network Slices (eMBB, uRLLC, MTC) The figure below depicts this scenario. This scenario implies a cooperation between two Marketplaces
(Terms and conditions Smart Contract) Blockchain-based Telecom Infrastructure Marketplaces and
Blockchain-based Energy Marketplaces.
Figure 7 Initial 5G Country / City / White Zone / Stadium Cell deployment and Re-enforcement / Densification through Telecom Infrastructure Marketplace and Energy Marketplace
4. Architecture
4.1. Business Architecture
Like explained in the other sections the blockchain based Telecom infrastructure marketplace provides an
ecosystem where CSPs can participate as asset providers to extend their monetization opportunities. The
architecture analyzed and proposed is a non-invasive and extensible integration approach that takes into
consideration of several scenarios of asset exposure from blocks of assets at different domains e.g. cell
infrastructure level to a slice level.
The asset management explored in the catalyst introduces an asset exposure layer that asset provider’s
business stakeholders can leverage to commercialize and management the lifecycle of assets that are
offered to the marketplace. A conceptual design is demoed as a part of the catalyst demos at TMF DTW
Nice 2019 like shown in the figure below.
Figure 8 Asset deployment view
Figure 9 Business Architecture - 5G Cell deployment and Re-enforcement / Densification through Telecom Infrastructure Marketplace and Energy Marketplace
4.2. Solution Architecture
Figure 10 Solution Architecture - 5G Cell deployment and Re-enforcement / Densification through Telecom Infrastructure Marketplace and Energy Marketplace
Auction, Regulatory validations for specific category of assets, Asset ordering, Asset bidding, Asset Match
making, Asset Billing adjustments, Regulator monitoring of events / transactions, Approvals for specific
transactions
4.3. Asset Provider Interactions
The figure below highlights the asset provider interaction with the marketplace.
Figure 11 Asset provider Interaction with Market Place
Assets that are to be to exposed to marketplace are management in an asset management and
onboarding functional layer and its key expected capabilities are
Manage asset offers a set of capabilities to manage assets exposed to marketplace
Categorize and publish assets – asset categorization e.g. frequency, cell active/ passive
infrastructure, slice etc.
Asset lifecycle management – manage status and approvals for assets e.g. in use/ published to
market place/ non available etc.
Commercialize assets – for asset provider business stakeholders to commercialize assets
Manage asset orders a set of capabilities to process asset orders from marketplace
Asset management workflows based on assets/ asset types
Asset check and analysis for checks like validity, location and configuration checks
Asset orders to respective domains for further processing and fulfillment
4.4. Energy Market Place (with Hyperledger)
4.4.1. Solution Architecture The solution can be deployed within Orange Flexible Engine Cloud, and also integrate nodes of the
Hyerledger network hosted elsewhere by consortium partners. The smart contracts implementing the
marketplace functions are deployed in a Hyperledger network.
The architecture of the solution is presented in the diagram below:
Figure 12 Blockchain based Energy Market Place
Client application : Marketplace
portal
Orange Cloud
Supervision
Users
Composer rest server
Explorer
Composer playground
Client VM
CA
orderer
Peer
Hyperledger network
(worker VM(s)
3.3.2. Process Flows
Figure 13 Process Flows for Energy Market Place
4.5. Telecom Infrastructure Market Place (with R3 Corda)
Corda is a platform designed to create a globally distributed ledger made up of mutually distrusting nodes that allow for a single global database that records the state of deals and obligations between institutions and people.
Corda is a platform for the writing of “CorDapps”: applications that extend the global database with new capabilities. Such apps define new data types, new inter-node protocol flows and the “smart contracts” that determine allowed changes.
Corda is presented as
I. Corda Open Source, is a platform that delivers the benefits of public blockchains without the privacy, scalability and governance issues that make some public blockchain platforms inappropriate for businesses – especially those operating in complex and highly-regulated global markets.
II. Corda Enterprise, a commercial distribution of the open source software designed specifically to meet the demands of modern-day businesses.
Harnessing the unique features of our core Corda offering – Corda Enterprise is the optimal choice for organizations with additional requirements such as deployment inside corporate data centers, 24/7 support, predictable release schedules, dedicated product management and support for industry-standard enterprise databases.
4.5.1. Solution Architecture
Figure 14 Blockchain based Telecom Infrastructure Marketplace – R3 Corda
4.5.2. Process Flows
Figure 15 Process flows of Blockchain based Telecom Infrastructure Marketplace – R3 Corda
4.6. Telecom Infrastructure Market Place (with IOTA)
4.6.1. Solution Architecture
The architecture below shows a logical view of how an asset marketplace has been implemented using
IOTA. It shows the provided functionalities and the supported workflow.
The proposed architecture shows functionalities that happens in chain and off-chain and the provided
APIs. As well as the match with existing TMForum APIs, the implementation of which is provided in order
to support integration with third party services.
The proposed architecture makes use of MAM Channels1 to create immutable audit trails of assets offers,
requests and orders. A digital twin is defined to model different transactions payload by implementing
the data model of offers, requests and orders.
MAM Channels are preferred to store data instead of using single IOTA transactions, for the following
reasons:
Assets belong to a given Asset Provider, they are unique and offers need to be linked to them. An asset
can only have one active offer at time;
Requests generated by the same Service Providers need to be linked in order to force one request per
asset at time per Service Providers and to simplify auditing;
Assets assigned to Service Providers, through orders, are linked to the identity of Service Providers.
Identifiers of MAM Channels (root keys) are used as a proxy for identity of Assets and Service Providers2.
1 A MAM (Masked Authenticated Messaging) is a second layer communication protocol that allows to
easily create and read data stream on the IOTA Tangle, guaranteeing integrity of the information and
protecting its confidentiality through encryption. More info can be found here:
- Service provider reputation: it transparently collects feedback from asset providers to service
providers following a given verified transaction involving the use of a specific assets, correct use
of it and provisioning of the required payment.
- Asset transparency and traceability: it contains contracts (e.g. who uses what under which
conditions) between asset providers and service providers and allow to track responsibilities in
case of misuse as well collect payments.
- Settlement and payments: enables the settlement of contracts and the sending of payment for
accessing assets.
All the blocks should have blockchain or DLT backed functionalities in order to improve trust among
parties.
Use of IOTA technology will allow for the following benefits in developing the different blocks:
- Asset registry: A digital twin capturing the asset information can be developed. A MAM channel
should be created for each asset. Updates of the digital twin information will be provided by
sending different MAM messages in the same channel. Immutability of the information will be
granted at no cost as MAM messages can be issued as zero-value transactions.
- Asset quality and trust: information on asset quality and trust can be associated to asset digital
twin and immutably stored as additional MAM message in the same asset channel. Confidentiality
of this information can be maintained as MAM channel and messages can be selectively set up as
private by encrypting information and sharing decryption keys only with authorized parties, under
control of the asset owner.
- Service providers’ reputation: a digital twin can be created to capture the service provider profile
and information resulting from a transparent auditing of its use of requested assets, payment
provisioning etc. Generated reputation information can be maintained private and disclosed only
with authorised parties (e.g. regulator). Identity of Service Providers can be bind to public keys
associated to the specific MAM Channel;
- Asset Transparency and Traceability: A contract stating who use what under which conditions can
be stored into the IOTA Tangle and refer to the involved assets and service providers by including
the public keys identifying the relevant MAM channels. IOTA scale-ability and lightweight protocol
will allow to manage such transactions at scale.
- Settlement and Payments: IOTA Flash Channels allow for a trusted, interoperable offline payment
system. It does not require conversion fees or extra fee for transaction processing due to the
feeless structure of the IOTA Tangle. Moreover, the use of Flash Channels provides a decentralized
mechanism to require transacting parties to stake enough currency availability before entering a
contract. This protects service providers to pay before assets are accessed and avoid asset
providers the risk to face insolvent service providers as well as to hold payment in case of dispute
resolution.
Figure below provides an overview of the envisioned reference architecture:
Along with the already described blocks, Digital Twin will allow to model information that will be stored
into the Tangle in different formats (e.g, for Asset and Service providers) and relying on existing standard
data model. This allows for improved interoperability with existing data models (e.g. FI-WARE) by
developing FI-WARE2MAM and MAM2FI-WARE interfaces.
The Business Agreement & Rules (Templates) provides a library of assets access contracts that can be
created among parties.
The Trusted Automated Contract will host software to automate execution of processes (e.g., Asset
Quality & Trust or Service Providers Reputation) based on trusted input stored into the IOTA Tangle.
Outcome of open source, inspectable, Trusted Automated Contracts can also be stored into the Tangle
for verification purposes.
10.4. R3
Introduction to R3 and Corda: R3 is an enterprise blockchain software firm working with a broad ecosystem of more than 300 members and partners across multiple industries from both the private and public sectors to develop on Corda, its open-source blockchain platform, and Corda Enterprise, a commercial edition of Corda for enterprise usage.
R3’s global team of over 200 professionals in 14 countries is supported by over 2,000 technology, financial, and legal experts drawn from its global member base.
The Corda platform is already being used in industries from financial services to healthcare, shipping, insurance and more. It records, manages and executes institutions’ commercial agreements in perfect synchrony with their peers, creating a world of frictionless commerce.
Originally established as a research initiative in 2014, R3 reoriented efforts to the development of a Distributed Ledger Technology Software solution following research, investigation and validation and the discovery that
(i) while blockchain and distributed ledger technology offered compelling advantages and opportunity,
(ii) there was no software that met the functional criteria of R3 members (over 100 leading financial service organisations) or was appropriate for use in high grade, performance sensitive and regulated industries.
Consequently: R3 was launched as an independent software firm to develop the Corda Platform, which provides the benefits of blockchain but on a platform that meets the security, stability and scalability requirements of enterprise users.
In 2016 we released Corda, our open source blockchain platform in conjunction with industry-leading companies. Corda delivers the benefits of public blockchains without the privacy, scalability and governance issues that make some public blockchain platforms inappropriate for businesses – especially those operating in complex and highly-regulated global markets.
In 2018 we introduced Corda Enterprise; a commercial distribution of Corda Open Source designed specifically to meet the demands of high-performance solutions.
Harnessing the unique features of our core Corda offering – Corda Enterprise is the optimal choice for organisations with additional requirements such as deployment inside corporate data centres, 24/7 support, predictable release schedules, dedicated product management and support for industry-standard enterprise databases.
R3 has a large amount of experience working with partners on solutions supporting the issuance, life
cycle management and transaction of digital assets representing real world assets. For example, R3 is
working with SIX Group who recently announced the selection of Corda Enterprise as the platform on
which they will build their next generation exchange, the SIX Digital Exchange -
https://www.r3.com/news/corda-enterprise-selected-by-six-digital-exchange/. R3 also recently
completed a trial with RBS, Barclays and 40 others using Corda to power a marketplace for property
transactions, reducing average transaction times from months to weeks -
Corda: Corda is a distributed database platform with a specific architecture, set of attributes and features that distinguish Corda, address specific issues in the blockchain | distributed ledger domain and enable particular functions:
The fundamental design decision of Corda, which was made at the very beginning, is that Corda allows for limited data sharing and facilitates compliant transactions between regulated institutions subject to reporting and data privacy regulations.
We have been developing this platform significantly over the past few years and went to market with our first enterprise version in July 2018. As an enterprise-grade blockchain platform, Corda removes costly
friction in business transactions by enabling institutions to transact directly using smart contracts, while ensuring the highest levels of privacy and security. This provides value to the economy and consumers.
Corda was originally built by the financial services industry, for the financial services industry, therefore it is the only DLT platform built specifically for enterprise use cases. It was developed to leverage the power of blockchain to address their specific business challenges in highly regulated markets. Corda can now be applied seamlessly to other areas of the business and sectors including healthcare, energy, and supply chains.
Note: Corda follows a general philosophy of reusing existing proven software systems, protocols, standards and infrastructure where possible.
Corda Nodes are arranged in an authenticated peer to peer network: all communication in a Corda network are direct (broadcast or gossip protocols are not used). All transaction flows are encrypted.
Nodes provide the dependency graph of a transaction they are sending to another node on demand, but there is no global broadcast of transactions.
Transactions may execute in parallel, on different nodes, without either node being aware of the other’s transactions. New transactions can be simply defined using JVM bytecode.
The data model allows for arbitrary object graphs to be stored in the ledger. These graphs are called states and are the atomic unit of data. Data is shared on a need to know basis.
Transaction races are deconflicted using pluggable notary clusters. A single Corda network may contain multiple notary clusters that provide their guarantees using a variety of different algorithms: Corda is not tied to a single or any particular consensus algorithm.
Nodes are backed by a relational database – and data placed in the ledger can be queried using SQL (as well as joined with private tables).
Bytecode-to-bytecode transpilation is used to allow complex, multi-step transaction building protocols called flows to be modelled as blocking code. The code is transformed into an asynchronous state machine, with checkpoints written to the node’s backing database when messages are sent and received.
A node may potentially have millions of flows active at once and they may last days, across node restarts and even upgrades.
This core architectural design makes Corda highly appropriate for use in marketplace and broader telecoms use cases. R3 works with hundreds of firms who are building, testing and deploying solutions on Corda today.
