Exploring intelligent service migration in vehicular networks

Mobile edge clouds have great potential to address the challenges in vehicular networks by transferring storage and computing functions to the cloud. This brings many advantages of the cloud closer to the mobile user, by installing small cloud infrastructures at the network edge. However, it is still a challenge to efficiently utilize heterogeneous communication and edge computing architectures. In this paper, we investigate the impact of live service migration within a Vehicular Ad-hoc Network environment by making use of the results collected from a real experimental test-bed. A new proactive service migration model which considers both the mobility of the user and the service migration time for different services is introduced. Results collected from a real experimental test-bed of connected vehicles show that there is a need to explore proactive service migration based on the mobility of users. This can result in better resource usage and better Quality of Service for the mobile user. Additionally, a study on the performance of the transport protocol and its impact in the context of live service migration for highly mobile environments is presented with results in terms of latency, bandwidth, and burst and their potential effect on the time it takes to migrate services

Exploring a new transport protocol for vehicular networks

The Future Internet will be very different from the current Internet. In particular, support for new networks such as vehicular networks, will be a key part of the new environment. Applications running on these networks will require low latency and high bandwidth, which must be provided in a highly mobile environment. The goal of this paper is to look at these issues as they have been addressed in the design and development of the Simple Lightweight Transport Protocol (SLTP) to support vehicular networking. The functions and workings of the protocol are examined in this paper as well as the ecosystem that is needed to provide low latency. A detailed set of preliminary results are presented and compared with a standard TCP implementation. SLTP was also ported to the Roadside Units of a Vehicle Ad-Hoc Network and results are presented for moving data to and from the Roadside Units. This work highlights the need for the Future Internet to place more resources at the edge of the core network to provide support for low latency in vehicular environments

Exploring the provision of reliable network storage in highly mobile environments

Computing is fundamentally about processing data which must be readily accessible to processing elements. Hence, the use of storage hierarchies plays an important role in the overall performance of computer systems. Recently, due to the deployment of fast networks, network storage has emerged as a viable alternative to large local storage systems. However, trying to provide reliable network storage in highly mobile environments, such as vehicular networks, results in the need to address several issues. This paper explores these challenges by first looking at the communication dynamics required for seamless connectivity in these networks. It then looks at how services can be migrated as users move around. The results of this analysis are applied to the migration of a simple Network Memory Server using different migration techniques such as Docker, KVM, LXD and Unikernels in an edge environment, represented by a real Vehicle Ad-Hoc Network. The results show that a proactive approach to service migration is needed to support such services in highly mobile environments

A new service management framework for vehicular networks

Mobile Edge Computing is now being implemented using Cloud Systems at the edge of the network allowing performance enhancements for user workloads. The installation of services closer to the end user promotes a readily available, low latency and high bandwidth environment which can be used to support new applications and services in vehicular environments. However, in order to support these networks, it is necessary to enable service migration which will allow services to migrate as users move around. Current service architectures do not fully provide such features and hence a new service management framework for vehicular networks must be developed. This paper explores these issues by looking at a reference architecture for services and develops a practical framework for service management in vehicular networks. A functional system looking at migration of a Network Memory Server using different migration techniques such as Docker, KVM, LXD and Unikernels is explored and results are presented which show that this approach can be used to support new applications and services in a highly mobile environment

Exploring a new framework to build mobile QoS-aware applications and services for future internet

Mobile users are making more demands of common networks by running applications such as network streaming of audio, video as well as immersive gaming that demand a high Quality of Service. One way to address this problem is by making services mobile, such that the services will move closer to the users as they move around. This ensures that low latencies are maintained between the client and server resulting in a better Quality of Service. At present, new architectures such as the Y-Comm framework, attempt to provide a platform to support intelligent service migration mechanisms. However, what is also needed is to provide QoS mechanisms in order to facilitate efficient service migration. This requires techniques to measure the QoS in terms of bandwidth, latency and burst characteristics at various locations to which the server could be migrated. In addition, the emergence of Software Defined Networking as well as new end to end control mechanisms such as the Network Management Control Protocol and the development of new transport protocols will allow a new framework to support mobile QoS-Aware applications and services that will be a key part of the Future Internet. This paper explores the development of a new applications and services framework for Future Internet that replaces the traditional IP framework. New mechanisms are developed to decide when and where to move services and a video on demand scenario is analysed. An analytical model is investigated to provide results based on bandwidth and latency. The results show that this approach is valid and should lead to better QoS and better Quality of Experience for mobile users