C-POD: An AWS Cloud Framework for Edge Pod Automation and Remote Wireless Testbed Sharing

TL;DR

C-POD is a cloud-native framework that automates deployment and management of edge pods for remote wireless testbed sharing, enabling scalable OTA experimentation via AWS cloud resources.

Contribution

This paper introduces C-POD, a novel framework that simplifies remote wireless testbed sharing and management using cloud automation and edge computing.

Findings

Successful deployment on AWS demonstrating automation and scalability.

Integration of wireless testbeds for RF and 5G(B) communications.

Enhanced experiment observability and resource management.

Abstract

This paper presents C-POD, a cloud-native framework that automates the deployment and management of edge pods for seamless remote access and sharing of wireless testbeds. C-POD leverages public cloud resources and edge pods to lower the barrier to over-the-air (OTA) experimentation, enabling researchers to share and access distributed testbeds without extensive local infrastructure. A supporting toolkit has been developed for C-POD to enable flexible and scalable experimental workflows, including containerized edge environments, persistent Secure Shell (SSH) tunnels, and stable graphical interfaces. We prototype and deploy C-POD on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) public cloud to demonstrate its key features, including cloud-assisted edge pod deployment automation, elastic computing resource management, and experiment observability, by integrating two wireless testbeds that focus on RF signal generation and 5G(B) communications, respectively.