Blockchain-Enabled Access Management System For Edge Computing

In the post-cloud era, edge computing is a new computing paradigm with data processed at the edge of the network, which can process the data close to the end-user in real time and offload the cloud task intelligently. Meanwhile, the decentralization, tamper-proof and anonymity of blockchain technology can provide a new trusted computing environment for edge computing. However, it does raise considerable concerns of security, privacy, fault-tolerance and so on. For example, identity authentication and access control rely on third parties, heterogeneous devices and different vendors in IoT, leading to security and privacy risks, etc. How to combine the advantages of the two has become the highlight of academic research, especially the issue of secure resource management. Comprehensive security and privacy involve all aspects of platform, data, application and access control. In. this paper, the architecture and behavior of an Access Management System (AMS) in a proof of concept (PoC) prototype are proposed with a Color Petri Net (CPN) model. The two domains of blockchain and edge computing are organically connected by interfaces and interactions. The simulation of operation, activity and role association proves the feasibility and effectiveness of the AMS. The instances of platform business access control, data access control, database services, IOT hub service are run on Advantech WISE-PaaS through User Account and Authentication (UAA). Finally, fine-grained and distributed access control can be realized with the help of a blockchain attribute. Namely, smart contracts are used to register, broadcast, and revoke access authorization, as well as to create specific transactions to define access control policies.