BlockQoS: Fair Monetization of On-demand Quality-of-Service using Blockchains

Abstract

Video conferencing has become an essential tool for working from home. However, poor audio/video quality resulting from unstable Internet connections undermines the productivity of important tasks. Additionally, the static monetization model for ISP networks, which employs third parties, cannot support on-demand and dynamic Quality-of-Service sessions that are necessary to maximize the Quality-of-Experience (QoE) of video conferencing. To address this, we introduce BlockQoS: Fair Monetization of On-Demand Quality-of-Service using Blockchains. BlockQoS allows clients to request and manage their Quality-of-Service requirements through a blockchain-based platform operating using a smart contract. It implements a decentralized monetization model to eliminate third parties, enforce transparency in service-level agreements (SLAs), and reduce blockchain operating costs by utilizing off-chain billing validated using zero-knowledge proofs (zk-SNARK). Additionally, we propose a Quality-of-Service delivery verification mechanism that enforces service level agreements on the hardware external to the blockchain, and a dynamic evaluation method based on the concept of Nash equilibrium in game theory that prevents malicious behavior by ISPs and users. We implemented BlockQoS over Ethereum with a Ryu controller, zk-SNARK, and SGX. Our experiments show that BlockQoS offers transaction cost reduction of up to 88% (gas cost) and latency reduction of up to 87% compared to the state-of-the-art on-chain solutions.