As edge devices grow smarter and application scenarios become more diverse, users' demands for lower latency and higher efficiency in data storage and processing have risen sharply. Individual edge devices and nodes are no longer sufficient to meet these expanding storage requirements. Consequently, developing efficient, low-latency, and cost-effective solutions for collaborative storage across edge devices and nodes has become a critical challenge. In this paper, we present a framework for the transaction and pricing of storage resources in an edge computing environment involving multiple edge service providers, to address trust and incentive issues in storage resource collaboration. Firstly, we propose a secure and decentralized storage resource trading mechanism by leveraging blockchain technology and smart contracts. We introduce Proof of Transaction Expectation (PoTE), an efficient, reliable, and lightweight consensus mechanism, to ensure transaction transparency, openness, and non-repudiation. Secondly, we introduce a game theory-based storage resource pricing model, where a leader interacts with multiple followers to optimize profits while maintaining service quality. To address dynamic pricing and storage resource allocation problems under incomplete information, we propose the Stackelberg Game Approach based on Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (SGA-MARL), which formulates the optimal pricing and trading share decisions in the two-stage Stackelberg game as a stochastic Markov Decision Process (MDP). Simulations and prototype testing validate the effectiveness of the proposed system, with results showing that the PoTE consensus achieves up to 40% higher throughput than Proof-of-Work while reducing latency by over 50% compared to PBFT, and the SGA-MARL algorithm improves leader profit by approximately 30% and resource satisfaction rates by over 80% compared to baseline methods like MA-PPO and DQN.

Mobile Virtual Reality (MVR), which aims to provide high-quality VR services to mobile devices of end users, has become the latest trend in virtual reality developments. The current MVR solution is to remotely render frame data from a cloud server, while the potential of edge computing in MVR is underexploited. In this paper, we propose a new approach named MUCVR to achieve high-quality interactive MVR collaboration for multiple users by exploiting edge computing. Firstly, we design “vertical” edge–cloud collaboration for VR task rendering, in which foreground interaction is offloaded to an edge server for rendering, while the background environment is rendered by the cloud server. Correspondingly, the VR device of a user is only responsible for decoding and displaying. Secondly, we propose the “horizontal” multi-user collaboration based on edge–edge cooperation, which synchronizes the data among edge servers. Finally, we implement the proposed MUCVR on an MVR device and the Unity VR application engine. The results show that MUCVR can effectively reduce the MVR service latency, improve the rendering performance, reduce the computing load on the VR device, and, ultimately, improve users' quality of experience.

Systems that integrate distributed databases and existing blockchain platforms have recently emerged, which conveniently leverage their respective strengths to build efficient, secure, and usable data sharing and collaboration environments for different organizations. However, the performance of such systems can be limited by the native blockchain platforms due to the high latency of transactions. In this paper, we present CoralDB, a bottom-up fully redesigned hybrid system of blockchain and database, aimed at enabling untrusted organizations to collaborate and share data efficiently and securely at the database level. The storage layer of CoralDB ensures data security and system throughput through key modules such as customized block structure, consensus mechanism, and transaction pool. On top of the storage layer, a database layer is introduced, which extends the blockchain of the storage layer by incorporating connection pools, collaborative tables, and query interfaces, to enhance the usability and efficiency of data collaboration and sharing. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that CoralDB provides security assurances at the level of blockchain and enables efficient decentralized data collaboration and sharing.

Summary Desktop virtualization, which is to make the desktop virtual so that users can access any application through the network with any devices at any time and any place, is being widely used now as an emerging trend. However, it is important to further improve this approach while maintaining good user experience. Though the simple protocol for independent computing environments as a virtual desktop solution can achieve a user experience similar to an interaction with a local machine, there are still many deficiencies in it. For instance, it cannot apply to environment of high controllability of user, and the quality of graphic interactive experience is to be improved. In this paper, to meet QoE requirements of user, we build a feasible file transfer and sharing mechanism and propose a graphics subsystem optimization strategy based on simple protocol for independent computing environments (SPICE), namely Transparent Desktop. We also verify that the Transparent Desktop can provide users with ubiquitous desktop services of higher efficiency, stronger user‐controllability and better QoE through the experimental. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.