Building Trust in the Era of 6G: A Level of Trust Assessment Function for Cloud Continuum

Sixth-Generation Wireless Networks are conceived as dynamic and self-management scenarios that support end-users to cover their business and network requirements. Endless resource pools aim at supporting end-users by exposing them to a range of services and infrastructures available to meet their real-time requirements. Yet, the number of feasible options and combinations that resource pools can offer end-users makes it difficult for them to allocate and manage such a large amount of resources. This challenge has been emphasized through the novel paradigm boosted by 6G networks, Cloud Continuum, that integrates resources across various network domains (Extreme Edge, Edge, and Cloud) and faces pending challenges in managing distributed infrastructure resources. Nonetheless, the lack of trust and uncertainty, especially when using services from unfamiliar stakeholders, is still present, affecting end-users’ decision-making. Thus, this article introduces a Level of Trust Assessment Function (LoTAF) for efficient resource and infrastructure management within the Cloud Continuum in 6G networks. LoTAF serves as a neutral and intelligent service to assess trust levels in network services, ensuring trustworthy end-to-end (E2E) connections across multiple domains and providers. By incorporating trust as a novel intent, LoTAF allows stakeholders to manifest needs and manage resources using insights from historical data and ongoing exploration, expressed in semi-natural language. Additionally, we also introduce the Trust Level Agreement (TLA) concept, evolving from traditional Service Level Agreements (SLAs), to incorporate stakeholder trust levels and display both LoTAF and TLA in a 6G-oriented scenario.