Secure D2D caching framework inspired on trust management and blockchain for Mobile Edge Caching

Device-to-Device communication (D2D), combined with edge caching and mobile edge computing, is a promising approach to allow offloading data from the wireless mobile network in light of the growth of the number of connected devices and the increase in traffic. However, user security is still an open issue in D2D communication. Security vulnerabilities remain possible owing to easy, direct and spontaneous interactions between untrusted users as well as mobility. In this article, we establish a Secure D2D Caching framework inspired on trUst management and Blockchain (SeCDUB) to improve the security of D2D communication in video caching, through an approach that combines direct and indirect observations. In addition, blockchain concepts were adapted to the dynamic and restricted scenario of the D2D networks to prevent data interception and the alteration of indirect observations. Two uncertainty mathematical models were used to infer direct and indirect trust values: Bayesian inference and the Dempster Shafer Theory (DST) respectively. In addition, we have designed a clustering scheme that enables a faster and more lightweight blockchain for D2D networks. This ensures overhead will not increase with the number of nodes, and thus offers a scalable security solution. Although the average throughput and packet loss increase when SeCDUB is employed, it is not significant in dense scenarios. Nonetheless, there is an improvement in the goodput for all the accessed network scenarios. (C) 2021 Published by Elsevier B.V.