Blockchain Based Service Continuity
in Mobile Edge Computing
Nabil El Ioini
Free University of Bozen-Bolzano

Italy
Context
• 5G-CARMEN

• 5G-enabled corridor
from Bologna to
Munich to conduct
cross-border trials of
5G technologies

• Leverage a distributed
mobile edge cloud
spanning from the
vehicle itself to the
centralized cloud
https://www.5gcarmen.eu/
Context
• Huge amount of traffic data

• IoT devices and sensors, audio, video

• Users demand

• Real time services

• High performance

• 99.999999999999% Availability
Context
• The need for infrastructures that provide

• Data processing at the source

• Real time data analysis

• Reliable
Edge Computing
• Characteristics
• Distributed

• Location/context aware

• Could be deployed on premise
Moves applications and data away from centralised nodes
(Cloud) closer to the “things” (devices, users, data).
• Benefits
• Less data transfer - remove
bottlenecks

• Local processing/storage - decision
making

• Improves user QoS 

• Privacy preserving
Edge Computing
Edge Computing
Challenges
• Multiple services and providers

• The same infrastructure needs to support multiple
services (multi-tenancy)

• Cross organisational boundaries

• Trust and security
Multiple services and providers
“Container Technology”
• Lightweight virtualisation
solution 

• Decouples hardware
resources from software
solutions 

• Fast initialisation and
instantiation of the
virtualised instances
• Application Provisioning

• Simplifies distribution, installation & execution of app. 

• Remote management

• Easy to update 

• Pre-configured = easy to manage 

• Can run on small devices

• Lightweight & Small footprint
Why Containers for Edge Computing?
Edge Computing
Cross organisational boundaries
• The collaboration of multiple SPs and edge applications vendors
are posing new challenges

• Decentralised and distributed environment

• Who manages what?

• Trustworthiness

• Verification of client/edge software & hardware

• Trusted sources

• Traceability
Focus
• Management

• Increase automation

• Orchestration: actions, decisions

• Trustworthiness

• Identification: things, data

• Provenance: data creation and chain of custody
Trusted Orchestration Management (TOM)
for the Edge with Blockchain
Edge Cloud
Orchestration Plan
Block n-2
Provenance
Identity
Orchestration
Contract
Block n-1
Provenance
Identity
Orchestration
Contract
Block n
Provenance
Identity
Orchestration
Contract
14
Problem…
… inefficient, expensive, vulnerable
Source: IBM Hyperledger composer
Shared replicated, permissioned ledger …
… consensus, provenance, immutability and finality
Source: IBM Hyperledger composer
W3C-PROV standard
• W3C PROV outlines a generic model for Provenance

• Defines the architecture and the compliance requirements
for software tools
17
Entit
Acti itAgent
a De i edF m
a Gene a edBed
a A ib edT
a A cia edWi h
Example
High Level Architecture
Raf C e P c
I e a D b ed S a e
Ma age Ma age Ma age
Wo ke Wo ke Wo ke Wo ke Wo ke
G e
Mapping W3C-PROV to Hyperledeger composer
.cto
Pa ici an
data o ner, container, de ice
A e
data, container, de ice
T an ac i n
container joining, container
identi cation, de ice identi cation,
de ice lea ing ...
.js
function onDe iceJoining(t )
de ice.checkIdentit
.acl
rule Default
participant: "ANY"
operation: "ALL"
Entit
Acti it
Agent
Scenarios
• Identification

• Device joining: new devices added to the network

• Container joining: new container lunched in the network

• Data added: new data object is sent by containers or IoT 

devices

• Provenance

• W3C-PROV implementation (derivedFrom, createdBy…)

• Orchestration

• Template of smart contract

• Access to blockchain API to define different levels of traceability

• record invoked functions

• execute actions on chain
Current work
A – Single MEC

• node acts independently 

• reactive migration 

B – MEC Cluster

• MEC nodes join clusters to
collaborate

• pre-defined contracts

C - MEC Swarm

• MEC nodes in a swarm

• delegate the communication
to the orchestrator
MEC Service continuity
Architecture
Contact
Dr. Nabil El Ioini
Software and Systems Engineering Research Group

Free University of Bozen-Bolzano 



Group website: www.inf.unibz.it/swse

E-mail: nelioini@unibz.it