Abstract
Offloading of computation, e.g., to the cloud, is today a major task in distributed systems. Usually, consumers which apply offloading have to trust that a particular functionality offered by a service provider is delivering correct results. While redundancy (i.e., offloading a task to more than one service provider) or (partial) reprocessing help to identify correct results, they also lead to significantly higher cost.
Hence, within this paper, we present an approach to verify the results of offchain computations via the blockchain. For this, we apply zero-knowledge proofs to provide evidence that results are correct. Using our approach, it is possible to establish trust between a service consumer and arbitrary service providers. We evaluate our approach using a very well-known example task, i.e., the Traveling Salesman Problem.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Applegate, D.L., Bixby, R.E., Chátal, V., Cook, W.J.: The Traveling Salesman Problem - A Computational Study. Princeton University Press, Princeton (2007)
Ben-Sasson, E., Chiesa, A., Tromer, E., Virza, M.: Succinct non-interactive zero knowledge for a von Neumann architecture. In: 23rd USENIX Security Symposium, pp. 781–796. USENIX Association (2014)
Chatzopoulos, D., Ahmadi, M., Kosta, S., Hui, P.: FlopCoin: a cryptocurrency for computation offloading. IEEE Trans. Mobile Comput. 17(5), 1062–1075 (2018)
Eberhardt, J., Heiss, J.: Off-chaining models and approaches to off-chain computations. In: 2nd Workshop on Scalable and Resilient Infrastructures for Distributed Ledgers, pp. 7–12. ACM (2018)
Eberhardt, J., Tai, S.: ZoKrates - scalable privacy-preserving off-chain computations. In: 1st IEEE International Conference on Blockchain, pp. 1084–1091. IEEE (2018)
Fedak, G., Bendella, W., Alves, E.: Blockchain-Based Decentralized Cloud Computing. https://iex.ec/wp-content/uploads/pdf/iExec-WPv3.0-English.pdf (2017)
Goldreich, O., Micali, S., Wigderson, A.: How to play any mental game or a completeness theorem for protocols with honest majority. In: 19th Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, pp. 218–229. ACM (1987)
Greenberg, A.: Hackers can mess with voltages to steal intel chips’ secrets. https://www.wired.com/story/plundervolt-intel-chips-sgx-hack
Kosba, A., Papadopoulos, D., Papamanthou, C., Song, D.: MIRAGE: succinct arguments for randomized algorithms with applications to universal zk-SNARKs. In: 29th USENIX Security Symposium, pp. 2129–2146. USENIX Association (2020)
Kosta, S., Aucinas, A., Hui, P., Mortier, R., Zhang, X.: ThinkAir: dynamic resource allocation and parallel execution in the cloud for mobile code offloading. In: 31st IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications, pp. 945–953. IEEE (2012)
Krejci, S., Sigwart, M., Schulte, S.: Blockchain- and IPFS-based data distribution for the internet of things. In: Brogi, A., Zimmermann, W., Kritikos, K. (eds.) ESOCC 2020. LNCS, vol. 12054, pp. 177–191. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44769-4_14
Mach, P., Becvar, Z.: Mobile edge computing: a survey on architecture and computation offloading. IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutorials 19(3), 1628–1656 (2017)
Marston, S., Li, Z., Bandyopadhyay, S., Zhang, J., Ghalsasi, A.: Cloud computing - the business perspective. Decis. Support Syst. 51, 176–189 (2011)
Pan, J., Wang, J., Hester, A., AlQerm, I., Liu, Y., Zhao, Y.: EdgeChain: an edge-IoT framework and prototype based on blockchain and smart contracts. IEEE Internet of Things J. 6(3), 4719–4732 (2019)
Qiu, X., Liu, L., Chen, W., Hong, Z., Zheng, Z.: Online deep reinforcement learning for computation offloading in blockchain-empowered mobile edge computing. IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol. 68(8), 8050–8062 (2019)
ur Rehman Khan, A., Othman, M., Madani, S.A., Khan, S.U.: A survey of mobile cloud computing application models. IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutorials 16(1), 393–413 (2014)
Santos, N., Gummadi, K.P., Rodrigues, R.: Towards trusted cloud computing. In: 2009 Conference on Hot Topics in Computing. USENIX Association, Article No. 3 (2009)
Satyanarayanan, M.: A brief history of cloud offload: a personal journey from odyssey through cyber foraging to cloudlets. GetMobile Mob. Comput. Commun. 18(4), 19–23 (2014)
Schwarz, M., Weiser, S., Gruss, D., Maurice, C., Mangard, S.: Malware guard extension: using SGX to conceal cache attacks. In: Polychronakis, M., Meier, M. (eds.) DIMVA 2017. LNCS, vol. 10327, pp. 3–24. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60876-1_1
Skrzypczak, A.: Golem Architecture. https://blog.golemproject.net/golem-architecture/ (2017). Accessed 20 May 2021
Sonm Pte. Ltd.: SONM - Supercomputer Organized by Network Mining. https://whitepaper.io/document/326/sonm-whitepaper
Teutsch, J., Reitwießner, C.: A scalable verification solution for blockchains. CoRR abs/1908.04756 (2019). http://arxiv.org/abs/1908.04756
Uriarte, R.B., De Nicola, R.: Blockchain-based decentralized cloud/fog solutions: challenges, opportunities, and standards. IEEE Commun. Stand. Mag. 2(3), 22–28 (2018)
Wu, H., Sun, Y., Wolter, K.: Energy-efficient decision making for mobile cloud offloading. IEEE Trans. Cloud Comput. 8(2), 570–584 (2020)
Wu, H., Wolter, K., Jiao, P., Deng, Y., Zhao, Y., Xu, M.: EEDTO: an energy-efficient dynamic task offloading algorithm for blockchain-enabled IoT-edge-cloud orchestrated computing. IEEE Internet Things J. 8(4), 2163–2176 (2021)
Acknowledgments
The financial support by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs, the National Foundation for Research, Technology and Development and the Christian Doppler Research Association is gratefully acknowledged.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Körbel, B., Sigwart, M., Frauenthaler, P., Sober, M., Schulte, S. (2021). Blockchain-Based Result Verification for Computation Offloading. In: Hacid, H., Kao, O., Mecella, M., Moha, N., Paik, Hy. (eds) Service-Oriented Computing. ICSOC 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 13121. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91431-8_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91431-8_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-91430-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-91431-8
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)