Integration of communication and computing in blockchain-enabled multi-access edge computing systems

Blockchain and multi-access edge computing (MEC) are two emerging promising technologies that have received extensive attention from academia and industry. As a brand-new information storage, dissemination and management mechanism, blockchain technology achieves the reliable transmission of data and value. While as a new computing paradigm, multi-access edge computing enables the high-frequency interaction and real-time transmission of data. The integration of communication and computing in blockchain-enabled multi-access edge computing networks has been studied without a systematical view. In the survey, we focus on the integration of communication and computing, explores the mutual empowerment and mutual promotion effects between the blockchain and MEC, and introduces the resource integration architecture of blockchain and multi-access edge computing. Then, the paper summarizes the applications of the resource integration architecture, resource management, data sharing, incentive mechanism, and consensus mechanism, and analyzes corresponding applications in real-world scenarios. Finally, future challenges and potentially promising research directions are discussed and present in detail.