ExEC: Elastic Extensible Edge Cloud

Edge computing (EC) extends the centralized cloud computing paradigm by bringing computation into close proximity to the end-users, to the edge of the network, and is a key enabler for applications requiring low latency such as augmented reality or content delivery. To make EC pervasive, the following challenges must be tackled: how to satisfy the growing demand for edge computing facilities, how to discover the nearby edge servers, and how to securely access them? In this paper, we present ExEC, an open framework where edge providers can offer their capacity and be discovered by application providers and end-users. ExEC aims at the unification of interaction between edge and cloud providers so that cloud providers can utilize services of third-party edge providers, and any willing entity can easily become an edge provider. In ExEC, the unfolding of initially cloud-deployed application towards edge happens without administrative intervention, since ExEC discovers available edge providers on the fly and monitors incoming end-user traffic, determining the near-optimal placement of edge services. ExEC is a set of loosely coupled components and common practices, allowing for custom implementations needed to embrace the diverse needs of specific EC scenarios. ExEC leverages only existing protocols and requires no modifications to the deployed infrastructure. Using real-world topology data and experiments on cloud platforms, we demonstrate the feasibility of ExEC and present results on its expected performance.