Event-Driven Testing For Edge Applications

TL;DR

This paper introduces Frisbee, a framework that automates and simplifies the testing of IoT applications on edge devices by enabling complex scenario simulation and fault injection within distributed virtual testbeds.

Contribution

The paper presents Frisbee, a novel framework that addresses limitations of existing IoT testing tools by supporting logical dependencies, fault injection, and automation on Kubernetes-based virtual testbeds.

Findings

Frisbee reduces testing time for IoT applications.

Supports complex workload and fault scenario descriptions.

Automates setup of distributed virtual testbeds.

Abstract

With the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Edge computing, a considerable amount of system services are moving from reliable Cloud data centers to less reliable infrastructures closer to the end-users. However, the constrained resources, unreliable communication, and varying operating conditions of IoT pose significant complexities for software vendors in testing their applications. Although several emulators exist for testing IoT systems, numerous issues can be pointed out, such as lacking support for logical dependencies and advanced fault injection capabilities, requiring manual validation of the system's behavior, or focusing on a specific platform and language. To address these limitations, we propose Frisbee: a framework for the automated testing of IoT applications. Frisbee accelerates the testing process by simplifying the spin-up of distributed virtual testbeds over Kubernetes and the description of `what-if' scenarios that integrate complex sequences of workloads and faultloads.