HEDMGame: Fragmentation-Aware Mitigation of Heterogeneous Edge DoS Attacks

Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) is a pivotal technology that provides agile-response services by deploying computation and storage resources in proximity to end-users. However, resource-constrained edge servers fall victim to Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks easily. Failures to mitigate DoS attacks effectively hinder the delivery of reliable and sustainable edge services. Conventional DoS mitigation solutions in cloud computing environments are not directly applicable in MEC environments because their design did not factor in the unique characteristics of MEC environments, e.g., constrained resources on edge servers and requirements for low service latency. Existing solutions mitigate edge DoS attacks by transferring user requests from edge servers under attacks to others for processing. Furthermore, the heterogeneity in end-users’ resource demands can cause resource fragmentation on edge servers and undermine the ability of these solutions to mitigate DoS attacks effectively. User requests often have to be transferred far away for processing, which increases the service latency. To tackle this challenge, this paper presents a fragmentation-aware gaming approach called HEDMGame that attempts to minimize service latency by matching user requests to edge servers’ remaining resources while making request-transferring decisions. Through theoretical analysis and experimental evaluation, we validate the effectiveness and efficiency of HEDMGame, and demonstrate its superiority over the state-of-the-art solution.