Dissertation
| Author | Heiko Bornholdt |
| Tutor | Winfried Lamersdorf |
| Title | Towards Intent-Based Overlay Networking |
| Abgabe am | 30.09.2024 |
| Abstract | Nowadays, most applications are inherently distributed due to the widespread adoption of IoT, edge, and cloud computing. Distributed applications provide a level of scalability and availability that are unattainable for centralized applications. The development of distributed applications requires, however, special attention to aspects such as communication, coordination, and naming; consistency and replication; fault tolerance; and security [ST23]. The common denominator among all these aspects is the goal of maximizing the benefits from available physical device resources. While distributed applications in cloud environments benefit from access to a virtually unlimited pool of well-defined and highly configurable resources within a common infrastructure, IoT and edge computing applications often operate in untrusted environments. This kind of environment presents unique challenges for resource management due to its uncontrolled, unknown, and often untrustworthy infrastructure, which complicates resource utilization. Moreover, the significant heterogeneity in configuration, availability, and performance makes resources in such environments less predictable. Despite these challenges, the applications’ need for low latency, high bandwidth efficiency, and privacy makes it necessary to run applications in IoT and edge environments instead. The overlay networking technology can help manage such untrusted resources. This technology introduces a logical layer – the overlay network – between the physical layer – the underlay network – and the application layer. An overlay network provides services to an application layer without requiring changes to the underlay, thereby granting an idealized view and control over the physical device resources. Despite its effectiveness in optimizing resource management, the programming process of overlay networks presents several major challenges: problem 1: limited visibility and control of resources in untrusted environments Developers have limited visibility and control over the configuration and behaviour of resources in untrusted environments. Resource reconfigurations to enhance application performance are constrained or entirely unfeasible. Furthermore, resources can be unpredictable, as they may suddenly exit the system or alter their behaviour without prior indication. Additionally, since the environment is considered untrusted, there is an inherent risk that any information obtained might not be reliable. Devices in the environment may be compromised, and data transmitted could be intercepted or manipulated. Implementing security services independently is, therefore, essential. problem 2: complex resource management in heterogenous systems Problem 1 is intensified by the significant heterogeneous softwarehardware configuration of the available resources. Applications require reliable resources and uniform access to them. Meeting such application demands requires resource management, which is a complex task. problem 3: static overlay networks Overlay networks help address the two aforementioned problems. Depending on the specific needs of a particular application, the overlay network services must differ. Therefore, overlay networks are often optimized for a specific use case. Once an overlay network is deployed, it is difficult to modify the overlay network design. Any requirement changes necessitate the development of a new overlay, which entails significant deployment effort. |
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