A Network Function Virtualization (NFV) Software Defined Network (SDN) maintains hardware trusted communications. A source trust controller and a target trust controller establish hardware trust with a trust server. The trust server exchanges information with the source trust controller that indicates the hardware trust for a target vSW. The source trust controller exchanges the information with the source vSW that indicates the hardware trust for the target vSW. The source vSW receives a Virtual Data Unit (VDU) from the source VNF for delivery to the target VNF over the target vSW, and before transfer, the source vSW verifies hardware trust of the target vSW based on the HT information. Responsive to the hardware trust verification, the source vSW transfers the VDU for the delivery to the target vSW. The target vSW transfers the VDU to the target VNF.