Quicklayer: A Layer-Stack-Oriented Accelerating Middleware for Fast Deployment in Edge Clouds

Abstract

Containers are gaining popularity in edge computing due to their standardization and low overhead. This trend has brought new technologies such as container engines and container orchestration platforms (COPs). However, fast and effective container deployment remains a challenge, especially at the edge. Prior work, which was designed for cloud datacenters, is no longer suitable for container deployment in edge clouds due to bandwidth limitations, fluctuating network performance, resource constraints, and geo-distributed organization. These edge features make rapid deployment on the edge difficult. Additionally, integrating with COPs is crucial for successful deployment. We present Quicklayer, a layer-stack-oriented middleware designed to accelerate container deployment in edge clouds. Quicklayer takes a holistic approach that preserves the stack-of-layers structure and is backward-compatible. It includes (1) a layer-based container refactoring solution that optimizes container images while maintaining the layer structure, (2) a customised Kubernetes scheduler that is able to be aware of network performance, disk space, and container layer cache for container placement, and (3) distributed shared layer-stack caches which are optimized for cooperative container deployment among edge clouds. Preliminary results indicate that Quicklayer reduces redundant image size by up to 3.11× and speeds up the deployment process by up to 1.64× compared to the current popular container deployment system.