A Blockchain-Based Computing Architecture for Mobile Ad Hoc Cloud

Mobile ad-hoc cloud can exploit the computing resources (e.g., smartphones, vehicles, and unmanned systems) scattered in the mobile environment to form a self-organized ad-hoc local resource pool for providing opportunistic computing services. However, the highly dynamic and distributed characteristics of the mobile ad-hoc network environment bring great challenges in privacy and security in such opportunistic resource sharing. In this article, we first discuss the attractive features of blockchain for providing such resource sharing services in the mobile ad-hoc network environment in a secure and trustful way and then discuss the problems caused when using existing consensus protocols in such an environment. We accordingly devise a blockchain based trustful mobile ad-hoc cloud architecture, AdChain cloud. We describe the functions at different layers in this architecture, including the network layer, blockchain layer, and smart contract layer. To adapt to the high dynamics of the mobile ad-hoc network environment, we design a stability-aware consensus protocol at the blockchain layer. Simulation results show that our solution can achieve improved performance as compared with existing work.