A Platform for Driving Mobile Cloud Computing on OpenStack

Research with Cloudlets - An Introduction and Demonstration

This talk will explore one of the many applications of OpenStack in the context of research - Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC). MCC is a paradigm that strives to address resource poverty in smart mobile devices, by offloading demanding computation to cloud-based infastructure. The results of offloaded computation are then returned to the mobile device. By far, the most common implementation of this paradigm in current research is known as a "Cloudlet". A Cloudlet is effectively a secure, small-scale server that is co-located in an area where many mobile users commonly gather, such as at a coffee shop, shopping mall, or an airport. Mobile users in the vicinity can offload demanding computation to the Cloudlet. Cloudlets are seen as an "edge-computing" solution, as they sit at the edges of the Internet, close to the users.
The primary advantage of a Cloudlet-based solution to MCC is that the mobile user is typically only one Wi-Fi hop away. This enables low-latency communication between the mobile device and the Cloudlet. As a result, they are particularly suitable for applications with low-latency, real time requirements, as opposed to other solutions which offload to a far-away data-center. Naturally, Cloudlets also face difficulties such as deployment, adoption, and practicality limitations.
The focus of this talk will be on an OpenStack-based implementation of Cloudlets (OpenStack with extensions for Cloudlets). The concepts behind, and the architecture of Cloudlets, will be presented. It will be demonstrated on-top of an existing DevStack installation, with provisioning of Cloudlets taking place using the Horizon dashboard. A selection of sample Android-based applications that can offload computation to the provisioned Cloudlet will also be demonstrated. Cloudlets will also be discussed with reference to other solutions from current MCC research which, by comparison, will highlight the strengths and weaknesses.

Michael O'Sullivan is presenting. Some background on Michael:

Dr. Michael J. O'Sullivan is a Software Engineer working as part of the Cloud Foundation Services team for Bluemix Dedicated/Local, in the IBM Cloud division in Cork. Michael has worked on both Delivery Pipeline/Deployment Automation and Performance Testing teams, which has resulted in daily exposure to customer deployments of IBM Cloud services for Bluemix using OpenStack, as well as other cloud platforms. Michael holds a PhD in Computer Science from University College Cork (2012 - 2015), where, under the supervision of Dr. Dan Grigoras, engaged in research of Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC) - specifically, studying and implementing solutions for delivering seamless user experiences of MCC applications and services. Prior to this, Michael graduated with a 1st Class Honours Degree in Computer Science from University College Cork in 2012.