COMPUTER SYSTEM HARDWARE VALIDATION FOR VIRTUAL COMMUNICATION NETWORK ELEMENTS

摘要

A data communication network has computer systems (111-114) that process virtual network elements (121-132) during network processing time cycles to forward data communication packets for user data services. The computer systems (111-114) process hardware-embedded codes during the network processing time cycles to identify the computer systems (111-114). A security server (141-144) validates the computer system identities for the virtual network elements (121-132). A database system maintains a distributed data structure that individually associates the data services, the computer systems (111-114), the virtual network elements (121-132), and the computer system validities. The security server (141-144) and the database system could be discrete systems or they may be at least partially integrated within the computer systems (111-114) where they would typically execute during different processing time cycles from the virtual network elements (121-132).