Blockchain-Empowered Collaborative Task Offloading for Cloud-Edge-Device Computing

【Author】 Yao, Su; Wang, Mu; Qu, Qiang; Zhang, Ziyi; Zhang, Yi-Feng; Xu, Ke; Xu, Mingwei

【Source】IEEE JOURNAL ON SELECTED AREAS IN COMMUNICATIONS

【影响因子】13.081

【Abstract】How to enable high-performance task offloading and preserve the trust between participants is imperative yet nontrivial to the Cloud-Edge-Device (CED) computing, mainly because the resources are geo-distributed and operated by different parties. Also, the CED participants are highly dynamic and heterogeneous in resource provision and may conflict in interest. This paper proposes BlockChain-empowered CED (BCCED), a blockchain-empowered collaborative task offloading for CED computing. In BC-CED, blockchain plays a central role in the main functionality of CED, including task offloading, brokerage of resource usage, and incentives. We distinguish the BC-CED from the existing solutions by modifying the blockchain consensus process, enabling the participants to reach an agreement via solving the task offloading problem. For this purpose, we formulate the offloading problem by considering the computation capabilities of candidate nodes and the network performance. BC-CED allows each participant to apply reinforcement learning-based methods to solve this problem and compete for the right of block output by comparing the offloading policy performance and accepting the best policy as the offloading scheme within the next period. We also propose a truthful incentive mechanism to encourage resource contributions in BC-CED and force them to he honest. Extensive tests by implementing our solutions in a commercialized blockchain platform have shown how BC-CED achieves a superior performance in task offloading and blockchain maintenance.

【Keywords】Cloud-edge-device computing; task offloading; blockchain; reinforcement learning

【发表时间】2022 DEC

【收录时间】2023-01-14

【文献类型】实验仿真

【主题类别】

区块链技术-协同技术-边缘计算