A Blockchain Framework for Secure Task Sharing in Multi-Access Edge Computing

• Published in: IEEE network Vol. 35; no. 3; pp. 176 - 183
• Main Authors: Rivera, Angelo Vera, Refaey, Ahmed, Hossain, Ekram
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01-05-2021; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Blockchain; Collaboration; Cryptography; Edge computing; Fabrics; Incentives; Mobile computing; Servers; Task analysis; User experience
• ISSN: 0890-8044; 1558-156X
• DOI: 10.1109/MNET.011.2000497

In the context of Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC), the task sharing mechanism among edge servers is an activity of vital importance for speeding up the computing process and thereby improving the user experience. The distributed resources in the form of edge servers are expected to collaborate with each other in order to boost overall performance of a MEC system. However, there are many challenges to adopt global collaboration among the edge computing server entities and two of them are especially significant: ensuring trust among the servers and developing a unified scheme to enable real-time collaboration and task sharing. In this article, a blockchain framework is proposed to provide a trusted collaboration mechanism among edge servers in a MEC environment. In particular, a permissioned blockchain scheme is investigated to support a trusted design that also provides incentives for collaboration. Finally, Caliper tool and Hyperledger Fabric benchmarks are used to conduct an experimental evaluation of the proposed blockchain scheme embebbed in a MEC framework.