Energy-Performance-Security Trade-off in Mobile Edge Computing

Abstract

Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) also known as Mobile Edge Computing is a type of edge computing that extends the capabilities of cloud computing by bringing resources to the edge of the network. Traditional cloud computing occurs on remote servers far away from users and IoT devices, whereas MEC allows computing processes to take place at base stations, central offices or other aggregation points within the transport network. However, localization of MEC nodes near the data-generating devices gives rise to several challenges such as launch of several attacks from data-generating or network edge devices on the nodes. In this paper, we simulate Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) and Routing-based attacks to determine their impact on energy and performance. In addition, we propose a novel approach for mitigating the DDoS attack in MEC nodes. Our approach accurately discriminates between high-rate and low-rate DDoS attacks and provides defence against both of them. Our method has a 90% success rate in successfully detecting and thwarting DDoS attack on MEC nodes.