Skip to main content

A Blockchain-Based Decentralized Self-balancing Architecture for the Web of Things

Part of the Communications in Computer and Information Science book series (CCIS,volume 1064)

Abstract

Edge computing is a distributed computing paradigm that relies on the computational resources of end devices in a network to bring benefits such as low bandwidth utilization, responsiveness, scalability and privacy preservation. Applications range from large scale sensor networks to IoT, and concern multiple domains (agriculture, supply chain, medicine, etc.). However, resource usage optimization is a challenge due to the limited capacity of edge devices and is typically handled in a centralized way, which remains an important limitation. In this paper, we propose a decentralized approach that relies on a combination of blockchain and a consensus algorithm to monitor network resources and, if necessary, migrate applications at run-time. We integrate our solution into an application container platform, thus providing an edge architecture capable of general purpose computation. We validate and evaluate our solution with a proof-of-concept implementation in a national cultural heritage building.

Keywords

  • Edge computing
  • Internet of Things
  • Decentralized applications
  • Blockchain

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    https://kubernetes.io/.

  2. 2.

    https://kubernetes.io/docs/setup/independent/setup-ha-etcd-with-kubeadm.

  3. 3.

    https://github.com/docker/swarm.

  4. 4.

    https://dcos.io/.

  5. 5.

    Please note that CoAP could be used for energy saving purposes.

References

  1. Acuña, P.: Amazon EC2 container service. In: Acuña, P. (ed.) Deploying Rails with Docker, Kubernetes and ECS, pp. 69–98. Apress, Berkeley (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-2415-1_4

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  2. Al-Madani, B.M., Shahra, E.Q.: An energy aware plateform for IoT indoor tracking based on RTPS. Procedia Comput. Sci. 130(C), 188–195 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Anderson, C.: Docker [software engineering]. IEEE Softw. 32(3), 102-c3 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Bragard, Q., Ventresque, A., Murphy, L.: Self-balancing decentralized distributed platform for urban traffic simulation. IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp. Syst. 18(5), 1190–1197 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Castro, M., Liskov, B., et al.: Practical byzantine fault tolerance. In: OSDI, vol. 99, pp. 173–186 (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Diallo, M.H., August, M., Hallman, R., Kline, M., Slayback, S.M., Graves, C.: Automigrate: a framework for developing intelligent, self-managing cloud services with maximum availability. Cluster Comput. 20(3), 1995–2012 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Higgins, N., Vyatkin, V., Nair, N.K.C., Schwarz, K.: Distributed power system automation with IEC 61850, IEC 61499, and intelligent control. IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern. Part C (Appl. Rev.) 41(1), 81–92 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Hightower, K., Burns, B., Beda, J.: Kubernetes: Up and Running: Dive Into the Future of Infrastructure. O’Reilly Media, Inc., Sebastopol (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Lamport, L., et al.: Paxos made simple. ACM SIGACT News 32(4), 18–25 (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Mach, P., Becvar, Z.: Mobile edge computing: a survey on architecture and computation offloading. IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutor. 19(3), 1628–1656 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Maior, H.A., Rao, S.: A self-governing, decentralized, extensible internet of things to share electrical power efficiently. In: 2014 IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), pp. 37–43. IEEE (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Medel, V., Rana, O., Bañares, J.Á., Arronategui, U.: Modelling performance & resource management in Kubernetes. In: 2016 IEEE/ACM 9th International Conference on Utility and Cloud Computing (UCC), pp. 257–262. IEEE (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Niyato, D., Xiao, L., Wang, P.: Machine-to-machine communications for home energy management system in smart grid. IEEE Commun. Mag. 49(4), 53–59 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1109/MCOM.2011.5741146

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  14. Olson, K., Bowman, M., Mitchell, J., Amundson, S., Middleton, D., Montgomery, C.: Sawtooth: An Introduction. The Linux Foundation, January 2018

    Google Scholar 

  15. Ongaro, D., Ousterhout, J.: In search of an understandable consensus algorithm. In: 2014 USENIX Annual Technical Conference (USENIX ATC 2014), pp. 305–319 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Peltz, C.: Web services orchestration and choreography. Computer 36(10), 46–52 (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Satyanarayanan, M.: The emergence of edge computing. Computer 50(1), 30–39 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Suzdalenko, A., Galkin, I.: Instantaneous, short-term and predictive long-term power balancing techniques in intelligent distribution grids. In: Camarinha-Matos, L.M., Tomic, S., Graça, P. (eds.) DoCEIS 2013. IAICT, vol. 394, pp. 343–350. Springer, Heidelberg (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-37291-9_37

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  19. Taherizadeh, S., Jones, A.C., Taylor, I., Zhao, Z., Stankovski, V.: Monitoring self-adaptive applications within edge computing frameworks: a state-of-the-art review. J. Syst. Softw. 136, 19–38 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgment

The authors gratefully acknowledge the European Commission for funding the InnoRenew CoE project (Grant Agreement #739574) under the Horizon2020 Widespread-Teaming program and the Republic of Slovenia (Investment funding of the Republic of Slovenia and the European Union of the European regional Development Fund). The first author also acknowledges the support of the ARRS grant N1-0093.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aleksandar Tošić .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Tošić, A., Vičič, J., Mrissa, M. (2019). A Blockchain-Based Decentralized Self-balancing Architecture for the Web of Things. In: Welzer, T., et al. New Trends in Databases and Information Systems. ADBIS 2019. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1064. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30278-8_34

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30278-8_34

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-30277-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-30278-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)