Combinatorial auction based multi-task resource allocation in fog environment using blockchain and smart contracts

With the elevation of terminal devices, network traffic has also grown with rapid speed. To relieve cloud computing constraints on timely delivery, energy consumption, and congestion, fog computing is introduced to provide proximate and spot-on services to network devices. In fog environment, resource-deprived user nodes can offload their multi-task to network periphery situated fog nodes. However, due to the decentralized and untrusted behavior of fog nodes; trade, and pricing related sensitive information can be tampered by an unauthorized entity for their benefits. In this paper, we design a joint resource allocation and pricing scheme using blockchain employed smart contract. Blockchain is used to overcome untrusted behavior by preventing the malicious node from tampering with trade information. However, a smart contract employed fair and secure payment among user nodes and fog nodes. Particularly, we propose descending combinatorial auction-based dynamic pricing schemes, in which any user node can request bundle of resources and fog nodes compete with each other to serve their request. Experimental results show that the proposed pricing scheme helps fog nodes to earn significant profit by providing their resource efficiently.

Automated summary

With the rise of terminal devices, network traffic has increased rapidly, leading to the introduction of fog computing to provide proximate and spot-on services. However, due to the decentralized and untrusted behavior of fog nodes, sensitive trade and pricing information may be tampered with. This paper proposes a joint resource allocation and pricing scheme using blockchain employed smart contract to prevent malicious node tampering and enable fair and secure payment between user nodes and fog nodes.