Reputation mechanism to support trustful interactions of autonomous providers in edge environments

A non-transitory storage medium having stored therein instructions that are executable by one or more hardware processors to perform operations for improving provision of computing services provided to a customer by a computing services provider, and the operations comprising:

• monitoring computing services provided by a computing services provider to a customer comprising an edge system that comprises hardware and/or software;
• gathering data concerning the computing services received by the customer;
• applying a distance function to the data to determine to what extent, if any, the computing services diverge from computing services specified for the customer, as defined by a QoS (Quality of Service) requirement of an SLA (service level agreement) agreed upon by the customer and the computing services provider, wherein applying the distance function comprises comparing a sample distribution of observed QoS parameters with an estimated probabilistic distribution of QoS parameters of the agreed upon SLA;
• based on results of the applying of the distance function, applying a reward function to determine a value for the computing services provider, wherein the reward function assigns a negative value when observed QoS parameter values deviate from QoS values specified in the SLA, regardless of whether the deviation is above or below the specified QoS values, such that delivery of QoS values that outperform the specified QoS values is not rewarded, and wherein assignment of the value to the computing services provider affects a reputation score associated with the computing services provider;
• and
• when applying of the distance function indicates that the computing services provided to the customer do not meet the computing services specified in the QoS requirement, automatically triggering a change in the computing services provided to the customer.

A computer system comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• one or more non-transitory storage devices that store instructions that are executable by the one or more processors to cause the computer system to:
• monitor computing services provided by a computing services provider to a customer comprising an edge system that comprises hardware and/or software;
• gather data concerning the computing services received by the customer;
• apply a distance function to the data to determine to what extent, if any, the computing services diverge from computing services specified for the customer, as defined by a QoS (Quality of Service) requirement of an SLA (service level agreement) agreed upon by the customer and the computing services provider, wherein applying the distance function comprises comparing a sample distribution of observed QoS parameters with an estimated probabilistic distribution of QoS parameters of the agreed upon SLA;
• based on results of the applying of the distance function, apply a reward function to determine a value for the computing services provider, wherein the reward function assigns a negative value when observed QoS parameter values deviate from QoS values specified in the SLA, regardless of whether the deviation is above or below the specified QoS values, such that delivery of QoS values that outperform the specified QoS values is not rewarded, and wherein assignment of the value to the computing services provider affects a reputation score associated with the computing services provider;
• and
• when applying of the distance function indicates that the computing services provided to the customer do not meet the computing services specified in the QoS requirement, automatically trigger a change in the computing services provided to the customer.