Lightweight service replication for ultra-short latency applications in mobile edge networks

Edge Cloud infrastructure will play a key role in extending the range of supported real-time cloud applications, by guaranteeing extremely fast response times. However, user mobility requires fast relocation of service instances, which represents an open challenge for resource-constrained cloudlets interconnected by high-latency and low-bandwidth links. In this paper, we investigate container-based virtualization techniques to support dynamic Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) environments. In particular, we design a framework to guarantee fast response time, by proactively exploiting service replication. A preliminary performance analysis is conducted to identify the possible advantages introduced by the proposed approach compared to classic migration procedures.