66 research outputs found

    Cloudy in guifi.net: Establishing and sustaining a community cloud as open commons

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    Commons are natural or human-made resources that are managed cooperatively. The guifi.net community network is a successful example of a digital infrastructure, a computer network, managed as an open commons. Inspired by the guifi.net case and its commons governance model, we claim that a computing cloud, another digital infrastructure, can also be managed as an open commons if the appropriate tools are put in place. In this paper, we explore the feasibility and sustainability of community clouds as open commons: open user-driven clouds formed by community-managed computing resources. We propose organising the infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) cloud service layers as common-pool resources (CPR) for enabling a sustainable cloud service provision. On this basis, we have outlined a governance framework for community clouds, and we have developed Cloudy, a cloud software stack that comprises a set of tools and components to build and operate community cloud services. Cloudy is tailored to the needs of the guifi.net community network, but it can be adopted by other communities. We have validated the feasibility of community clouds in a deployment in guifi.net of some 60 devices running Cloudy for over two years. To gain insight into the capacity of end-user services to generate enough value and utility to sustain the whole cloud ecosystem, we have developed a file storage application and tested it with a group of 10 guifi.net users. The experimental results and the experience from the action research confirm the feasibility and potential sustainability of the community cloud as an open commons.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

    Prototyping Incentive-based Resource Assignment for Clouds in Community Networks

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    Wireless community networks are a successful example of a collective where communities operate ICT infrastructure and provide IP connectivity based on the principle of reciprocal resource sharing of network bandwidth. This sharing, however, has not extended to computing and storage resources, resulting in very few applications and services which are currently deployed within community networks. Cloud computing, as in today's Internet, has made it common to consume resources provided by public clouds providers, but such cloud infrastructures have not materialized within community networks. We analyse in this paper socio-technical characteristics of community networks in order to derive scenarios for community clouds. Based on an architecture for such a community cloud, we implement a prototype for the incentive-driven resource assignment component, deploy it in a testbed of community network nodes, and evaluate its behaviour experimentally. Our evaluation gives insight into how the deployed prototype components regulate the consumption of cloud resources taking into account the users' contributions, and how this regulation affects the system usage. Our results suggest a further integration of this regulation component into current cloud management platforms in order to open them up for the operation of an ecosystem of community cloud

    On participatory service provision at the network edge with community home gateways

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    Edge computing is considered as a technology to enable new types of services which operate at the network edge. There are important use cases in ambient intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT) for edge computing driven by huge business potentials. Most of today's edge computing platforms, however, consist of proprietary gateways, which are either closed or fairly restricted to deploy any third-party services. In this paper we discuss a participatory edge computing system running on home gateways to serve as an open environment to deploy local services. We present first motivating use cases and review existing approaches and design considerations for the proposed system. Then we show our platform which materializes the principles of an open and participatory edge environment, to lower the entry barriers for service deployment at the network edge. By using containers, our platform can flexibly enable third-party services, and may serve as an infrastructure to support several application domains of ambient intelligence.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

    Support Service for Reciprocal Computational Resource Sharing in Wireless Community Networks

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    In community networks, individuals and local organizations from a geographic area team up to create and run a community-owned IP network to satisfy the community's demand for ICT, such as facilitating Internet access and providing services of local interest. Most current community networks use wireless links for the node interconnection, applying off-the-shelf wireless equipment. While IP connectivity over the shared network infrastructure is successfully achieved, the deployment of applications in community networks is surprisingly low. To address the solution of this problem, we propose in this paper a service to incentivize the contribution of computing and storage as cloud resources to community networks, in order to stimulate the deployment of services and applications. Our final goal is the vision that in the long term, the users of community networks will not need to consume applications from the Internet, but find them within the wireless community network

    Gossip-based service monitoring platform for wireless edge cloud computing

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    Edge cloud computing proposes to support shared services, by using the infrastructure at the network's edge. An important problem is the monitoring and management of services across the edge environment. Therefore, dissemination and gathering of data is not straightforward, differing from the classic cloud infrastructure. In this paper, we consider the environment of community networks for edge cloud computing, in which the monitoring of cloud services is required. We propose a monitoring platform to collect near real-time data about the services offered in the community network using a gossip-enabled network. We analyze and apply this gossip-enabled network to perform service discovery and information sharing, enabling data dissemination among the community. We implemented our solution as a prototype and used it for collecting service monitoring data from the real operational community network cloud, as a feasible deployment of our solution. By means of emulation and simulation we analyze in different scenarios, the behavior of the gossip overlay solution, and obtain average results regarding information propagation and consistency needs, i.e. in high latency situations, data convergence occurs within minutes.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

    Development and management of collective network and cloud computing infrastructures

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    Pla de Doctorat industrial de la Generalitat de CatalunyaIn the search and development of more participatory models for infrastructure development and management, in this dissertation, we investigate models for the financing, deployment, and operation of network and cloud computing infrastructures. Our main concern is to overcome the inherent exclusion in participation in the processes of development and management and in the right of use in the current dominant models. Our work starts by studying in detail the model of Guifi.net, a successful bottom-up initiative for building network infrastructure, generally referred to as a community networks. We pay special attention to its governance system and economic organisation because we argue that these are the key components of the success of this initiative. Then, we generalise our findings for any community network, aiming at becoming sustainable and scalable, and we explore the suitability of the Guifi.net model to the cloud computing infrastructure. As a result of both, we coin the attribute extensible to refer to infrastructure that is relatively easy to expand and maintain in contrast to those naturally limited or hard to expand, such as natural resources or highly complex or advanced artificial systems. We conclude proposing a generic model which, in our opinion, is suitable, at least, for managing extensible infrastructure. The Guifi.net model is deeply rooted in the commons; thus, the research in this field, in general, and Elinor Ostrom’s work, in particular, have left a profound imprint in our work. Our results show that the \guifinet model meets almost entirely the principles of long-enduring commons identified by E. Ostrom. This work has been developed as an industrial doctorate. As such, it combines academic research with elements of practice and pursues an effective knowledge transfer between academia and the private sector. Given that the private sector’s partner is a not-for-profit organisation, the effort to create social value has prevailed over the ambition to advance the development of a specific industrial product or particular technology.En la recerca i desenvolupament de models més participatius per al desenvolupament i gestió d'infraestructura, en aquesta tesi investiguem sobre models per al finançament, desplegament i operació d'infraestructures de xarxa i de computació al núvol. La nostra preocupació principal és fer front a l’exclusió inherent dels models dominants actualment pel que fa a la participació en els processos de desenvolupament i gestió i, també, als drets d’us. El nostre treball comença amb un estudi detallat del model de Guifi.net, un cas d'èxit d'iniciativa ciutadana en la construcció d'infraestructura de xarxa, iniciatives que es coneixen com a xarxes comunitàries. En fer-ho, parem una atenció especial al sistema de governança i a l’organització econòmica perquè pensem que són els dos elements claus de l'èxit d'aquesta iniciativa. Tot seguit passem a analitzar d'altres xarxes comunitàries per abundar en la comprensió dels factors determinants per a la seva sostenibilitat i escalabilitat. Després ampliem el nostre estudi analitzant la capacitat i el comportament del model de Guifi.net en el camp de les infraestructures de computació al núvol. A resultes d'aquests estudis, proposem l'atribut extensible per a descriure aquelles infraestructures que són relativament fàcil d'ampliar i gestionar, en contraposició a les que o bé estan limitades de forma natural o be són difícils d'ampliar, com ara els recursos naturals o els sistemes artificials avançats o complexos. Finalitzem aquest treball fent una proposta de model genèric que pensem que és d'aplicabilitat, com a mínim, a tot tipus d'infraestructura extensible. El model de Guifi.net està fortament vinculat als bens comuns. És per això que la recerca en aquest àmbit, en general, i els treballs de Elinor Ostrom en particular, han deixat una forta empremta en el nostre treball. Els resultats que hem obtingut mostren que el model Guifi.net s'ajusta molt bé als principis que segons Ostrom han de complir els béns comuns per ser sostenibles. Aquest treball s'ha desenvolupat com a doctorat industrial. Com a tal, combina la investigació acadèmica amb elements de practica i persegueix una transferència efectiva de coneixement entre l'àmbit acadèmic i el sector privat. Ates que el soci del sector privat és una organització sense ànim de lucre, l’esforç per crear valor social ha prevalgut en l’ambició d’avançar en el desenvolupament d'un producte industrial específic o d'una tecnologia particularPostprint (published version

    Development and management of collective network and cloud computing infrastructures

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    In the search and development of more participatory models for infrastructure development and management, in this dissertation, we investigate models for the financing, deployment, and operation of network and cloud computing infrastructures. Our main concern is to overcome the inherent exclusion in participation in the processes of development and management and in the right of use in the current dominant models. Our work starts by studying in detail the model of Guifi.net, a successful bottom-up initiative for building network infrastructure, generally referred to as a community networks. We pay special attention to its governance system and economic organisation because we argue that these are the key components of the success of this initiative. Then, we generalise our findings for any community network, aiming at becoming sustainable and scalable, and we explore the suitability of the Guifi.net model to the cloud computing infrastructure. As a result of both, we coin the attribute extensible to refer to infrastructure that is relatively easy to expand and maintain in contrast to those naturally limited or hard to expand, such as natural resources or highly complex or advanced artificial systems. We conclude proposing a generic model which, in our opinion, is suitable, at least, for managing extensible infrastructure. The Guifi.net model is deeply rooted in the commons; thus, the research in this field, in general, and Elinor Ostrom’s work, in particular, have left a profound imprint in our work. Our results show that the \guifinet model meets almost entirely the principles of long-enduring commons identified by E. Ostrom. This work has been developed as an industrial doctorate. As such, it combines academic research with elements of practice and pursues an effective knowledge transfer between academia and the private sector. Given that the private sector’s partner is a not-for-profit organisation, the effort to create social value has prevailed over the ambition to advance the development of a specific industrial product or particular technology.En la recerca i desenvolupament de models més participatius per al desenvolupament i gestió d'infraestructura, en aquesta tesi investiguem sobre models per al finançament, desplegament i operació d'infraestructures de xarxa i de computació al núvol. La nostra preocupació principal és fer front a l’exclusió inherent dels models dominants actualment pel que fa a la participació en els processos de desenvolupament i gestió i, també, als drets d’us. El nostre treball comença amb un estudi detallat del model de Guifi.net, un cas d'èxit d'iniciativa ciutadana en la construcció d'infraestructura de xarxa, iniciatives que es coneixen com a xarxes comunitàries. En fer-ho, parem una atenció especial al sistema de governança i a l’organització econòmica perquè pensem que són els dos elements claus de l'èxit d'aquesta iniciativa. Tot seguit passem a analitzar d'altres xarxes comunitàries per abundar en la comprensió dels factors determinants per a la seva sostenibilitat i escalabilitat. Després ampliem el nostre estudi analitzant la capacitat i el comportament del model de Guifi.net en el camp de les infraestructures de computació al núvol. A resultes d'aquests estudis, proposem l'atribut extensible per a descriure aquelles infraestructures que són relativament fàcil d'ampliar i gestionar, en contraposició a les que o bé estan limitades de forma natural o be són difícils d'ampliar, com ara els recursos naturals o els sistemes artificials avançats o complexos. Finalitzem aquest treball fent una proposta de model genèric que pensem que és d'aplicabilitat, com a mínim, a tot tipus d'infraestructura extensible. El model de Guifi.net està fortament vinculat als bens comuns. És per això que la recerca en aquest àmbit, en general, i els treballs de Elinor Ostrom en particular, han deixat una forta empremta en el nostre treball. Els resultats que hem obtingut mostren que el model Guifi.net s'ajusta molt bé als principis que segons Ostrom han de complir els béns comuns per ser sostenibles. Aquest treball s'ha desenvolupat com a doctorat industrial. Com a tal, combina la investigació acadèmica amb elements de practica i persegueix una transferència efectiva de coneixement entre l'àmbit acadèmic i el sector privat. Ates que el soci del sector privat és una organització sense ànim de lucre, l’esforç per crear valor social ha prevalgut en l’ambició d’avançar en el desenvolupament d'un producte industrial específic o d'una tecnologia particula

    On the collaborative governance of decentralized edge microclouds with blockchain-based distributed ledgers

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    Today's commercial model for edge computing services consists in lightweight devices at the network edge connected through the Internet to remote cloud data centers. Microclouds are an alternative vision of edge computing, where the cloud infrastructure runs at the network edge leveraging decentralized resource contributions of a community. But current attempts to build such microclouds lack a collaborative governance system to operate successfully. In this paper we discuss the opportunity to implement with blockchain technologies key services to enable the decentralized collaborative governance of microclouds. A multiagent approach could further contribute to improve the efficiency in the decision making in the collaborative governance service.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

    Community Networks and Sustainability: a Survey of Perceptions, Practices, and Proposed Solutions

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    Community network (CN) initiatives have been around for roughly two decades, evangelizing a distinctly different paradigm for building, maintaining, and sharing network infrastructure but also defending the basic human right to Internet access. Over this time they have evolved into a mosaic of systems that vary widely with respect to their network technologies, their offered services, their organizational structure, and the way they position themselves in the overall telecommunications’ ecosystem. Common to all these highly differentiated initiatives is the sustainability challenge. We approach sustainability as a broad term with an economical, political, and cultural context. We first review the different perceptions of the term. These vary both across and within the different types of stakeholders involved in CNs and are reflected in their motivation to join such initiatives. Then, we study the diverse approaches of CN operators towards the sustainability goal. Given the rich context of the term, these range all the way from mechanisms to fund their activities, to organizational structures and social activities serving as incentives for the engagement of their members. We iterate on incentive mechanisms that have been proposed and theoretically analyzed in the literature for CNs as well as tools and processes that have been actually implemented in them. Finally, we enumerate lessons that have been learned out of these two decades of CNs’ operation and discuss additional technological and regulatory issues that are key to their longer-term sustainability
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