SyncMesh: Improving Data Locality for Function-as-a-Service in Meshed Edge Networks

TL;DR

SyncMesh is a system designed to enhance data locality and reduce network traffic in edge computing environments by leveraging Function-as-a-Service, thereby improving data processing efficiency and latency.

Contribution

It introduces SyncMesh, a novel system that manages data in a stateless, scalable manner to improve data locality in FaaS-based edge networks.

Findings

Reduces network traffic compared to centralized systems

Accelerates data transmission to clients

Enhances local data processing efficiency

Abstract

The increasing use of Internet of Things devices coincides with more communication and data movement in networks, which can exceed existing network capabilities. These devices often process sensor or user information, where data privacy and latency are a major concern. Therefore, traditional approaches like cloud computing do not fit well, yet new architectures such as edge computing address this gap. In addition, the Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) paradigm gains in prevalence as a workload execution platform, however the decoupling of storage results in further challenges for highly distributed edge environments. To address this, we propose SyncMesh, a system to manage, query, and transform data in a scalable and stateless manner by leveraging the capabilities of Function-as-a-Service and at the same time enabling data locality. Furthermore, we provide a prototypical implementation and evaluate it against established centralized and decentralized systems in regard to traffic usage and request times. The preliminary results indicate that SyncMesh is able to exonerate the network layer and accelerate the transmission of data to clients, while simultaneously improving local data processing.