Leveraging deployment models on low-resource devices for cloud services in community networks

Abstract

Abstract-Community networks are IP networks constantly being improved that evolve into large-scale computing platforms. This has resulted from the effort to adapt the cloud computing model towards services that can operate and utilize the resources inside the community network. The network and its infrastructure are contributed by individuals, companies, organizations and are maintained by the community itself. Community cloud devices are often low computing resource devices, such as home gateways, with limited capabilities. Currently, these devices are configured to run community services only. This has become a drawback for further adoption because of contributor's difficulty to also use the donated cloud device for private purposes. We apply container-based virtualization for the problem of resource sharing in low-capacity devices in order to create a multi-purpose execution environment in a single device. Thus, a single device can be configured to deliver to the user and the community a multi-purpose environment, such as personal and public, isolated from one another, while preserving the community cloud services. Our comparative analysis with the current infrastructure in community networks gives evidence that the capability of the devices to run concurrent services is maintained.

A Lightweight Service Placement Approach for Community Network Micro-Clouds

“…The user devices connected to the ORs consists of Minix Neo Z64 and Jetway mini PCs, which are equipped with an Intel Atom CPU. They run the Cloudy 4 operating system, which leverages the Docker containerization technology and allows CN users to launch their favorite or the predefined Docker images in a few clicks, from their browser. This rapid application provision allows room for new, very dynamic ways to deploy services and share resources in a digital community.…”

“…The strong heterogeneity is due to the diverse capacity of nodes and links, as well as the asymmetric quality of wireless links. Employed technologies in the network vary significantly, ranging from very low-cost, off-the-shelf wireless (WiFi) routers, home gateways, laptops to expensive optical fiber equipment [4,32]. In terms of demand distribution, the demand comes directly from the edge so there are no central load balancers as in the DC environments.…”

On the Collaborative Governance of Decentralized Edge Microclouds with Blockchain-Based Distributed Ledgers

“…1) Multi-tenancy of the shared resource: A computing node, which is contributed by a member to the community network, is often used as a shared device [2]: On one hand, the device is used for the benefit of the community, e.g. by doing some monitoring function for the network.…”

“…Practical efforts which were undertaken, e.g. developing the Cloudy platform 2 , have not achieved to engage a larger number of participants [3]. Different to the edge microclouds, other volunteer contributed infrastructures in Guifi.net, like the network infrastructure, have been achieved to be sustainable.…”