# Dependable and Secure Voting Mechanism in Edge Computing
## 1 Introduction  
Cloud computing has tremendously impacted society by allowing users to use infrastructure, platforms, and software provided by cloud providers at a low cost. Current services use multiple clouds to increase data availability and performance. Contrarily, the complexity of an application increases, along with the risks in security and privacy [1]. In conventional cloud computing, the process of uploading data to centralized servers creates significant pressure on the network, specifically in the data transmission costs of bandwidth and resources. The network performance worsens with increasing data size [2]. Edge computing is used as a method for optimizing cloud applications by taking a certain portion of data or services away from a central cloud to nodes closer to the end-users. While everyday devices take advantage of cloud computing, Internet of Things (IoT) manufacturers and application developers are only just starting to discover the benefits of doing more computing and analytics on the devices themselves [3]. For critical solutions, edge computing is used to reduce latency and for real-time computation, to better manage the massive deluge of data being generated by the IoT devices, and to lower the dependence on network connectivity into the cloud. For instance, the agriculture industry requires real-time monitoring of the soil properties to determine the soil quality, moisture, and type of crop production [4]. In support of this, all agriculture entities need to be connected to have a decision-making system that can help increase production and ease the distribution of agricultural products from farmers to marketing agencies and from vendors to farmers. Yet, edge computing cannot defeat the benefits of using a centralized cloud, which includes better overall management of applications and data since they are centralized. Companies are always looking for the perfect cloud environment, which is secure and easy to configure, to overcome the various cloud limitations: Loss of availability and privacy, data corruption, and vendor lock-in. Using multiple clouds to replicate services can be viewed as a solution, but it does not come for free. Initially, using multipleclouds is more expensive in every sense than using one cloud. Even so, interoperability and portability are important factors to the success of this architecture [5]. By using multiple clouds, companies can reduce long-term costs, improve resilience and security, and avoid vendor lock-in. Cloud computing can improve the quality of smart-city services, offer support to store, and analyze and extract knowledge from raw data [6]. In a recent vision of computing for smart environments, academics and experts published a blueprint to help build smart cities by adopting a secure hybrid cloud architecture [7]. Edge computing can support time-sensitive requirements of IoT applications and exploit the constrained resources of edge devices, while cloud-based programming models can strongly secure sensitive data, perform cloud backups for disaster recovery, and reduce costs in general. A generic IoT network (see Figure 1) can be viewed as a three-tier network with the existing infrastructure networks (e.g., cloud and cellular networks). This architecture consists of 'cloud tier', 'edge tier', and 'device tier'. The device tier corresponds to the endpoints of the networks, where IoT devices act as data sources. Optionally, some IoT devices can be connected to edge gateways. The edge intelligence resides in the second tier: The edge computing layer. This layer comprises network devices, such as routers, gateways, and switches, that are capable of processing, computing, and temporarily storing the received information. The edge tier is composed of a group of edge nodes structured hierarchically and located between the cloud servers and the IoT devices. Edge nodes are devices capable of routing network traffic and usually also possess high computing power. They can range from base stations, routers, or switches to small-scale data centers.