MEC Federation Broker with Attestation-Based Trust
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing MEC federation systems face challenges in establishing trust and security among various entities, leading to limitations in orchestration, functional coordination, and resource management, especially in complex mobility settings with multiple participants.
Innovation Solution
Introduce a MEC Federation Manager and Broker (MEFM/B) as new standard entities to facilitate secure cross-platform communication, defining a standardized East-Westbound Interface (EWBI) for information exchange and implementing attestation-based security to enhance trust and resource sharing among partners.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple participants are involved in MEC federation, then service capabilities and resource availability are improved, but trust and security challenges increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a Federation Broker as an intermediary entity that mediates between different MEC operators. The broker handles authentication, authorization, and security protocols, enabling trust between participants without requiring direct trust relationships. This allows multiple operators to collaborate while maintaining security through the broker's coordination of authentication and authorization mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the federation management functions into separate entities: Federation Managers at each operator's domain and a central Federation Broker. This segmentation allows each operator to manage their own resources locally while the broker handles cross-domain trust and security, enabling scalability and maintaining reliability across multiple participants.
2Adaptability or versatility
If standardized interfaces are implemented for cross-platform communication, then interoperability is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent defines a universal Federation Broker interface that can communicate with different MEC operators using standardized protocols. The broker implements multi-functionality by handling multiple communication standards and protocols internally, providing a consistent interface for interoperability without requiring each individual system to implement all possible communication protocols, thus reducing overall system complexity.
3Reliability
If attestation-based security is implemented, then trust among partners is improved, but processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements attestation verification as a preliminary action during the service discovery and establishment phase. By verifying the trustworthiness of MEC operators and their services before actual resource allocation and execution, the system establishes trust upfront. This preliminary verification prevents security issues from affecting later processing operations, maintaining productivity while ensuring trust through advance attestation checks.
Data Source
AI summary
Various systems and methods are described implementing a multi-access edge computing (MEC) based system to realize MEC federation management and broker functions for MEC frameworks. In an example, performing edge federation management functions of edge computing systems, to establish a partnership among multiple edge federation managers as a federation, include: using system data attributes to establish the partnership; using authentication data attributes to enable the edge federation managers to securely authenticate; using authorization data attributes to enable the edge federation managers to perform authorization; using availability zone data attributes to define zones in the federation; and using management and settlement information data attributes to enable management of resources in the federation. Further operations include communicating the data attributes via respective connections with the edge federation managers, and the use of defined interfaces and operations.