Supporting IoT applications deployment on edge-based infrastructures using multi-layer feature models

Edge Computing proposes to use the nearby devices in the frontier/Edge of the access network for deploying application tasks of IoT-based systems. However, the functionality of such cyber- physical systems, which is usually distributed in several devices and computers, imposes specific requirements on the infrastructure to run properly. The evolution of an application to meet new user requirements and the high diversity of hardware and software technologies in the IoT/Edge/Cloud can complicate the deployment of continuously evolving applications. The aim of our approach is to apply Multi Layer Feature Models, which capture the variability of applications and the software and hardware infrastructure, to support the deployment in edge-based environments of cyber-physical applications. With this multi-layered approach is possible to support the evolution of application and infrastructure independently. Considering that IoT/Edge/Cloud infrastructures are usually shared by many applications, the deployment process has to assure that there will be enough resources for all of them, informing developers about the feasible alternatives. We provide four modules so that the developer can calculate what is the configuration of minimal set of devices supporting application requirements of the evolved application. In addition, the developer can find what is the application configuration that can be hosted in the current infrastructure. The successive solutions of continuous deployment generated by our approach pursue the reduction of the system energy footprint and/or execution latency. (c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

The method utilizes multi-layer feature models to capture application and software/hardware infrastructure variability, supporting the deployment of cyber-physical applications in edge environments for independent evolution of applications and infrastructure.