Security for Pervasive Edge Computing Ecosystems

各种新颖的应用，如自动驾驶、工业物联网(IIoT)、增强和虚拟现实(AR/VR)、远程医疗和分布式机器学习，正在推动边缘计算研发的快速增长，这些边缘计算部署在动态和资源受限的无线通信占主导地位的网络的最后一英里。这些应用程序需要在靠近数据源的位置进行计算，并在附近的设备、基站或接入点之间进行协调，以及与边缘的存储媒体下载等数据服务进行协调。它们还可能需要将计算负载转移到靠近边缘的数据中心或互联网上的某个位置，以进行图像注释和机器学习等处理。此外，这些应用依赖于超低延迟通信、可靠的计算以及网络边缘的安全和隐私。该项目旨在研究安全的普适边缘计算(PEC)环境的愿景，其中丰富的边缘计算资源(例如城市基础设施、个人设备和未来的无线设备)可以轻松、安全地以可信的方式进行编组，使得任何设备参与边缘计算都是可行的。本项目解决的特定研究问题是边缘设备和服务的访问控制和授权，这对于广泛采用PEC以满足医疗保健、交通、智能城市和智能电网中未来应用的需求至关重要。本项目主要研究以信息为中心的PEC网络中的访问控制和授权机制。研究人员将研究将访问控制即服务(ACaaS)委托给网络边缘的机制；以动态方式高效地撤销对数据和服务的访问凭据；以及安全地对访问控制操作进行记账，以验证服务的访问控制声明并评估用户的使用情况。他们将把他们的设计与IP网络中的竞争设计进行对比，以提供对拟议方法的有效性的全面比较评估。该项目的结果将通过使更多的边缘设备成为边缘计算的一部分来帮助提高边缘计算的安全性、可采用率和信任度，并通过使更多的边缘设备成为边缘计算的一部分来加速其采用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Diverse, novel applications, such as autonomous driving, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR), tele-medicine, and distributed machine learning are driving the rapid growth in research and development in edge computing deployed in the last mile of the network where dynamic and resource constrained wireless communications dominate. These applications require computation to happen close to the data source and be coordinated across nearby devices, base stations, or access points as well as with data services such as stored media download at the edge. They may also require computation offloading to a data center located near the edge or somewhere on the Internet for processes such as image annotation and machine learning. Furthermore, these applications rely on ultra-low latency communications, reliable computations, and security and privacy at the network edge. This project aims to investigate the vision of a secure Pervasive Edge Computing (PEC) environment where the abundant edge computing resources (e.g. city infrastructure, individuals’ devices, and future wireless devices), can be easily and securely marshaled, in a trusted manner, to make the participation of any device in edge computing feasible. The particular research problem addressed in this project is access control and authorization of devices and services at the edge—essential for the broad adoption of PEC to meet the needs of future applications in healthcare, transportation, smart cities, and the smart grid. This project focuses on investigating the access control and authorization mechanisms in an information-centric PEC network. The researchers will investigate mechanisms for delegating access control-as-a-service (ACaaS) to the network edge; efficient revocation of access credentials to data and services in a dynamic manner; and secure accounting of the access control operations to verify access control claims of the service and also to assess users’ usage. They will contrast their designs with competing designs in the IP network to provide comprehensive comparative assessments of the efficacy of proposed approaches. The results from this project will help increase the security, adoptability, and trust in edge computing and speed up its adoption by enabling more of the edge devices to become part of edge computing.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.