Hierarchical Combinatorial Auction in Computing Resource Allocation for Mobile Blockchain

The mobile blockchain has been recognized as an emerging solution to address the security and privacy issues in a mobile application system. The mining process in mobile blockchain requires high computing resources which could overwhelm that which mobile devices can offer. In this case, mobile edge computing servers (MESs) can be involved to offer computing services to miners in mobile blockchain. Note that the resources of MESs are also limited; MESs could further request resources from the cloud computing server (CCS). Accordingly, the issue of hierarchical computing resource allocation arises. In this paper, we first consider a simple case with single-seller multiple buyers and a hierarchical single-seller multibuyer combinatorial auction model is proposed to solve this problem, based on which efficient and truthful frameworks are provided. We then extend the model to consider multiple CCSPs and propose a hierarchical multiple-seller multiple-buyer combinatorial auction model. For both models, the winner determination problems are formulated and computationally tractable algorithms are proposed. Also, pricing schemes are proposed to ensure the property of incentive compatibility and individual rationality. Finally, we evaluate the proposed schemes via simulations.