Distributed Ledger Technologies for Managing Heterogenous Computing and Sensing Systems at the Edge

The increased popularity of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, ranging from simple sensors to powerful embedded computers, has created the need for solutions capable of processing and storing information near those assets. Edge Computing (EC) has become a staple architecture when designing solutions for IoT, as it optimizes the workload and capacity of systems dependent of the Cloud, by placing the required computing power near to where the information is being produced and consumed. An issue with these solutions, is that reaching consensus regarding the state of the network becomes more challenging as they scale in size. Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) can be described as a network of distributed databases that incorporate cryptography and algorithms to reach consensus among the participants. DLT has gained traction over the past years, particularly due to the popularity of Blockchain, the most well-known type of DLT implementation. In addition to the capability of reaching consensus, another key concept that brings EC and DLT together, is the reliability and trust that the latter offers through transparent and traceable transactions. In this thesis, we present the design and development of a proof-of-concept system that uses DLT Smart Contracts (SC) as the core for efficiently selecting Edge Nodes for offloading services. We present the experiments conducted to demonstrate the efficacy of the system and our conclusions regarding the usage of Hyperledger Fabric for managing systems at the edge

When Mobile Blockchain Meets Edge Computing

Blockchain, as the backbone technology of the current popular Bitcoin digital currency, has become a promising decentralized data management framework. Although blockchain has been widely adopted in many applications, e.g., finance, healthcare, and logistics, its application in mobile services is still limited. This is due to the fact that blockchain users need to solve preset proof-of-work puzzles to add new data, i.e., a block, to the blockchain. Solving the proof-of-work, however, consumes substantial resources in terms of CPU time and energy, which is not suitable for resource-limited mobile devices. To facilitate blockchain applications in future mobile Internet of Things systems, multiple access mobile edge computing appears to be an auspicious solution to solve the proof-of-work puzzles for mobile users. We first introduce a novel concept of edge computing for mobile blockchain. Then, we introduce an economic approach for edge computing resource management. Moreover, a prototype of mobile edge computing enabled blockchain systems is presented with experimental results to justify the proposed concept.Comment: Accepted by IEEE Communications Magazin