Industry Leaders to Deliver PoC for Speedy Commercial Interactions & Settlements Using Blockchain

Service providers CBCcom, PCCW Global, Sparkle and Tata Communications, together with technology vendors Clear Blockchain Technologies and Cataworx, have joined forces to create a Proof of Concept (PoC) designed to show how Telcos can introduce next-generation services such as IoT, VR and cloud in record speed, thanks to innovations in blockchain technology, artificial intelligence and intent-based customer interfaces. The PoC will be demonstrated between the 29^th and 31^st of October 2018 at the MEF18 global networking event (MEF18event.com) in Los Angeles, California.

New technologies, such as IoT, VR, autonomous cars and cloud, are driving user demand for higher capacity, agile bandwidth, lower latency and a guaranteed quality of service. While certain carriers and mobile operators have already developed capabilities for delivering on-demand services on their own network and infrastructure, inter-carrier operations are currently still managed manually as the BSS and OSS systems are not geared to offer automation of inter-carrier operations. On the operational side, the reasons include lack of a common language, use of disparate information and data models and misalignment of processes. On the commercial side, reasons include limited support of usage-based performance metrics and billing and settlement involving multi-party, multi-dimensional products. The PoC demonstrates a solution to both challenges.

The Bandwidth-on-Demand PoC will demonstrate the power and viability of a synchronized and decentralized global supply chain for inter-carrier bandwidth-on-demand services. As a result, carriers can automatically discover, quote, deliver and settle multi-product, multi-party services, eliminating reliance on a centralized intermediating party.

Cataworx will demonstrate LSO Sonata inter-carrier quoting solutions and LSO Cantata intent interfaces, enabling customers to rapidly discover and order services that span across multiple carrier networks. Clear will demonstrate LSO Sonata blockchain-based billing and settlement enabling carriers to bill for guaranteed network capacity on-demand, thus unlocking new revenue streams based on existing network infrastructure. Service providers CBCcom, PCCW Global, Sparkle and Tata Communications represent a multi-carrier interconnected network environment.

The PoC uses MEF LSO Cantata and Sonata inter-carrier interfaces for automation of bandwidth-on-demand product discovery, service eligibility verification, quote, order and blockchain-based settlement of services that are delivered across automated, virtualized and interconnected networks in accordance with the MEF LSO framework. In the PoC, customers state their intent via the bot-based Cataworx Community Portal. Off-net quotes are then exchanged across a MEF LSO Sonata Interface Reference Point as product offerings are discovered across any number of carriers. Orders are encoded in smart contracts and services are automatically settled, including provisions for SLA, using private and shared blockchain interactions.

The commercial solution, provided by Clear, involves automated multiparty inter-carrier blockchain-based invoicing, payments, dispute resolution, SLA based remedies and settling. The process eliminates manual, labor intensive and time-consuming elements of settlement, invoicing and clearing, accelerates quoting and invoicing and enables synchronized inter-carrier usage-based billing. With the elimination of a centralized orchestrator, neighboring carriers can transact directly, flexibly and automatically without revealing any sensitive commercial or operational information to a third party. This creates an equal-level bandwidth-on-demand play-field enabling any carrier to participate in the next wave of service innovation, based on their footprint and carrier-relations assets, free of vendor lock-in.

Engaged with major telecommunications organizations and carriers, Clear successfully completed a GLF-led PoC with PCCW Global and Colt for international wholesale IDD voice traffic, settling historical data for both companies in less than a minute. The second phase of the PoC integrated with the carriers’ production networks to settle data in near-real-time using automatic dispute resolution and settlement logic encoded in smart contracts, and was expanded to include additional carriers Telefonica, Telstra, and BT. Clear is launching additional PoCs in roaming and mobile messaging later this year.