A Cloud-Edge Continuum Experimental Methodology Applied to a 5G Core Study

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel methodology for deploying, testing, and analyzing microservice placement in a heterogeneous cloud-edge environment, demonstrated through a 5G core network function placement case study.

Contribution

It presents a new experimental methodology that enables flexible testing and analysis of microservice deployment strategies across cloud and edge infrastructures.

Findings

Effective simulation of edge devices within Kubernetes clusters

Versatile testing of deployment scenarios and metrics monitoring

Application to 5G core network function placement

Abstract

There is an increasing interest in extending traditional cloud-native technologies, such as Kubernetes, outside the data center to build a continuum towards the edge and between. However, traditional resource orchestration algorithms do not work well in this case, and it is also difficult to test applications for a heterogeneous cloud infrastructure without actually building it. To address these challenges, we propose a new methodology to aid in deploying, testing, and analyzing the effects of microservice placement and scheduling in a heterogeneous Cloud environment. With this methodology, we can investigate any combination of deployment scenarios and monitor metrics in accordance with the placement of microservices in the cloud-edge continuum. Edge devices may be simulated, but as we use Kubernetes, any device which can be attached to a Kubernetes cluster could be used. In order to demonstrate our methodology, we have applied it to the problem of network function placement of an open-source 5G core implementation.