Abstract: Embodiments include an apparatus comprising processor circuitry and memory circuitry, the memory circuitry storing processing instructions which, when executed by the processor circuitry, cause the processor circuitry to: at the end of a finite time period, performing an assignment of resources from a finite set of resources for performing tasks in a physical environment to pending tasks, including formulating the assignment, wherein formulating the assignment comprises: using a reinforcement learning algorithm to formulate a mapping that optimises a reward function value, the reward function value being a value generated by a predetermined reward function based on an inventory representing the resources, and a representation of the pending tasks, and the mapping, the mapping being a mapping of individual resources from the inventory to individual pending tasks in the representation, the formulated assignment being in accordance with the formulated mapping.

Abstract: A method implemented by a network device to predict smart contract violations, where the network device is communicatively coupled to one or more computing nodes that execute one or more smart contracts that are configured to perform transactions on a blockchain. The method includes generating a control flow graph for each of the one or more smart contracts, retrieving, from the blockchain, a current state of a variable utilized by the one or more smart contracts following execution of a transaction that updates the variable, generating or updating a state space tree based on the current state of the variable and the control flow graphs generated for the one or more smart contracts, determining whether the state space tree meets a predefined violation requirement, and sending an alert to the one or more computing nodes in response to determining that the state space tree meets the violation requirement.

Abstract: It is provided a method for providing device data from a source device to a data requester. The method is performed in a data provider and comprises the steps of: determining operating mode being either a pass-through mode or a cache mode, based on estimated resource usage for each of the pass-through mode and the cache mode; receiving a read request from the data requester; when the data provider is in the pass-through mode, transmitting a corresponding read request to the source device and forwarding a read response from the source device to the data requester; when the data provider is in the cache mode, retrieving device data from storage of the data provider and transmitting a read response to the data requester, the read response comprising the device data from storage; and populating the storage of the data provider with device data received from the source device.

Abstract: A method and a system are presented for enabling coordinated executions of actions in a distributed computing system with untrusted local computing agents. A smart contract including plans is recorded in a blockchain database. Each plan includes actions to be executed by a respective one of the local computing agents. Execution of a first action of a first set of actions to be executed by a first local computing agent is requested. Execution of a second action of a second set of actions to be executed by a second local computing agent is requested. Responsive to determining, based on the smart contract, that the first action can be executed, the first local computing agent is caused to execute the first action and responsive to determining, based on the smart contract, that the second action cannot be executed, the second local computing agent is caused to not execute the second action.

Abstract: It is provided a method for providing device data from a source device to a data requester. The method is performed in a data provider and comprises the steps of: determining operating mode being either a passthrough mode or a cache mode, based on estimated resource usage for each of the pass-through mode and the cache mode; receiving a read request from the data requester; when the data provider is in the pass-through mode, transmitting a corresponding read request to the source device and forwarding a read response from the source device to the data requester; when the data provider is in the cache mode, retrieving device data from storage of the data provider and transmitting a read response to the data requester, the read response comprising the device data from storage; and populating the storage of the data provider with device data received from the source device.