Current mobile applications treat the end-user device as a "thin client," with all of the heavy computations being offloaded to an infrastructure cloud. However, the computational capabilities of mobile devices are constantly improving, and it is worthwhile considering whether an edge-cloud that consists purely of mobile devices (operating effectively as "thick clients") can perform as well as, or even better than, an infrastructure cloud. In this paper, we study the trade-offs between offloading computation to an infrastructure cloud versus retaining the computation within a mobile edge-cloud. To this end, we develop and run two classes of applications on both types of clouds, and we analyze the performance of the two clouds in terms of the time taken to run the application, along with the total amount of battery power consumed in both cases. Our results indicate that there are indeed classes of applications where an edge-cloud can outperform an infrastructure cloud in terms of both latency and battery power.

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to evaluate the use of blockchain for identity management (IdM) in the context of the Internet of things (IoT) while focusing on privacy-preserving approaches and its applications to healthcare scenarios.Design/methodology/approachThe paper describes the most relevant IdM systems focusing on privacy preserving with or without blockchain and evaluates them against ten selected features grouped into three categories: privacy, usability and IoT. Then, it is important to analyze whether blockchain should be used in all scenarios, according to the importance of each feature for different use cases.FindingsBased on analysis of existing systems, Sovrin is the IdM system that covers more features and is based on blockchain. For each of the evaluated use cases, Sovrin and UniquID were the chosen systems.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper opens new lines of research for IdM systems in IoT, including challenges related to device identity definition, privacy preserving and new security mechanisms.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the ongoing research in IdM systems for IoT. The adequacy of blockchain is not only analyzed considering the technology; instead the authors analyze its application to real environments considering the required features for each use case.

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