Cloud Offload in Hostile Environments
Kiryong Ha, Grace A. Lewis, Soumya Simanta, Mahadev Satyanarayanan · 2011
research and development center. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the NSF, Intel, DoD, SEI, or Carnegie Mellon University. This material has been approved for public release and unlimited distribution except as restricted by copyright. Keywords: mobile computing, cloud computing, cyber foraging, smartphones, virtual machines, system architecture, cloudlets, disconnected operation, fault tolerance, failure resiliency, denial of service, wireless networks, jamming, ad hoc networks, dynamic VM synthesis, demandpaging, Selective offloading of resource-intensive execution from a mobile device to the cloud can extend battery life and broaden the range of supported applications. Unfortunately, the success of this approach is critically dependent on a reliable end-to-end network. This dependence is a serious vulnerability in hostile environments, especially those involving wireless components in their long-haul network segments. We describe an architectural approach to reducing this vulnerability. Using a hierarchical cloud structure, offload is performed on stateless elements that are typically one wireless hop away from a mobile device. The proximity of offload reduces synchronous dependence on vulnerable long-haul network segments. We present experimental