R3 and DCconnect Partner For MEF3.0

R3 and DCconnect Partner For MEF3.0 PoC to Track Proven Performance of Automated Inter-Carrier Operations on Corda


R3 and DCconnect Partner For MEF3.0 was originally published in R3 Publication by Thomas Spencer on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.


Doing a thought experiment for a moment, it is easy to come up with some tough questions for our industry.

– How are carriers going to scale to handle customers’ insatiable demand for more data and more connected devices?

– How are carriers going to manage the large-scale investment projects needed to exploit these new technology opportunities?

– How are carriers going to position themselves to compete with OTT service providers over the next 5+ years?

The answers are less easy or obvious to reach, but work is being done by pioneering carriers like DCConnect with R3 through MEF to lead the way.

If carriers are going to exploit new revenue opportunities, then they need to be able to deliver outstanding services to customers at scale in an economically efficient way. This means they need to get much better at automating operational processes to deliver these services. They also need to collaborate with wholesale network service providers in order to deliver these services across different network domains. Therefore, they actually not only need to automate their own processes but also automate their inter-operable processes to deliver joint services.

In this new world of the API economy and inter-carrier collaboration, automation alone is not enough — carriers also need trust. They need to trust one another that automated processes and operations will work, and customers will receive the services being ordered at the expected schedule of delivery.

DCConnect and R3 are collaborating with other carriers on a MEF 3.0 PoC that will showcase how an E-line service provider ordering a wholesale access E-line service from a wholesale operator partner using LSO Sonata APIs can use smart contracts on Corda to track SLA performance metrics and maintain an immutable record of performance. This record of performance, or proof of performance/assurance, will act as an immutable rating of the operator. The rating is transparent in the API economy, so it could influence the reputation of the carriers. Using these capabilities not only allows carriers to automate the delivery of services across network domains but crucially they can trust that these services are being delivered to the level that customers require.

R3 and DCConnect have recognised that for carriers to adopt, deploy and realise the benefits of such an automated solution — privacy, performance, and scalability are going to be essential. This is where the unique capabilities of Corda were identified as being the most suitable DLT for the purposes of this PoC.

DCconnect is a leading Hong Kong and China based provider with their self-developed Customer Service Portal allowing carriers to control their bandwidth requirements via on-demand technology. This has brought the ability for carriers integrated with DCConnect APIs to change service parameters like bandwidth in seconds and automate significant amounts of operational requirements.

R3 is the leading provider of enterprise blockchain software across industries including telecoms, banking, and insurance. R3 develops both Corda open-source, and Corda Enterprise, a commercial version of Corda for enterprise usage, to provide customers with a DLT platform that can meet their scalability, performance, regulatory, security and privacy requirements. Corda is the de facto blockchain platform being used across banking and insurance, and now R3 and DCConnect are partnering to trial a Proven Performance application developed by DCConnect with R3 on Corda.

“It has been a fantastic journey working with R3 on the blockchain project in MEF19 PoC,’ said Victor Ma, Head of Alliance & Market Development, DCConnect Global Ltd. “With profound experience in the banking and finance industry, R3 has brought us lots of inspiration on the potential of using blockchain in the telecom world, especially in this API economy of inter-carrier orchestration. We believe the MEF19 PoC has triggered the first wave of blockchain implementation among telcos and will induce more blockchain projects in the near future.”

“The Corda blockchain platform has been built with a focus on security, performance, and privacy for enterprises, which is well suited for inter-carrier use cases. As the telecoms industry invests in technologies supporting secure automation, the MEF19 PoC showcases how applications on Corda can deliver these capabilities with the unqiue benefits of an enterprise-grade blockchain. We are excited to be supporting DCConnect to build new applications on Corda and bring real innovation to the industry” said Thomas Spencer, Director Business Development — Telecom Lead, R3.

For more information about the PoC project in MEF19, please visit below websites: