Abstract
With the arrival of the edge computing a new challenge arises for cloud applications: How to benefit from geo-distribution (locality) while dealing with inherent constraints of wide-area network links? The admitted approach consists in modifying cloud applications by entangling geo-distribution aspects in the business logic using distributed data stores. However, this makes the code intricate and contradicts the software engineering principle of externalizing concerns. We propose a different approach that relies on the modularity property of microservices applications: (i) one instance of an application is deployed at each edge location, making the system more robust to network partitions (local requests can still be satisfied), and (ii) collaboration between instances can be programmed outside of the application in a generic manner thanks to a service mesh. We validate the relevance of our proposal on a real use-case: geo-distributing OpenStack, a modular application composed of 13 million of lines of code and more than 150 services.
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Notes
- 1.
https://netflixtechblog.com/open-sourcing-zuul-2-82ea476cb2b3. Accessed 2021-02-15. Zuul defines itself as an API gateway. In this paper, we do not make any difference with a service mesh. They both intercept and control requests on top of microservices.
- 2.
https://www.openstack.org/software. Accessed 2021-02-15.
- 3.
https://github.com/BeyondTheClouds/openstackoid/tree/stable/rocky. Accessed 2021-02-15.
- 4.
For clarity, this paper simplifies the boot workflow. In a real OpenStack, the boot also requires at least the network and identity service. Many other service may also be involved. See https://www.openstack.org/software/project-navigator/openstack-components. Accessed 2021-02-15.
- 5.
https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Image_handling_in_edge_environment. Accessed 2021-02-15.
- 6.
https://github.com/BeyondTheClouds/openstackoid/tree/stable/rocky. Accessed 2021-02-15.
- 7.
https://www.haproxy.org/. Accessed 2021-02-15.
- 8.
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Cherrueau, RA., Delavergne, M., Lèbre, A. (2021). Geo-distribute Cloud Applications at the Edge. In: Sousa, L., Roma, N., Tomás, P. (eds) Euro-Par 2021: Parallel Processing. Euro-Par 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12820. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85665-6_19
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