AppFlux: EdgeBox-based Services for Apps Delivery and Distribution

Ada GavrilovskaGeorgia Institute of Technology

08/10/2015

InternetWi-fi/5G

Rapid growth in types of devices and apps

• Evidence of end-user app preference• App usage is exploding: - e,g, 80+B downloads now, >>200B 2017

Relies on cloud-based infrastructure(e.g., App stores and backend servers/services)

Current State of Device Ecosystem

Challenges of Cloud-Supported App Model

• Long-haul Bandwidth

• Lost opportunity

• App discovery and distribution

Source: Akamai state of Internet report Q1’2015

Alternative: Edge Boxes or eBoxes

• Provision-able distributed infrastructure outside data center.

• Situated beyond the last mile of Internet near end user.

• Examples of edge Boxes• Enterprise Cloudlets: 4-40 servers, ~100 TBs, placed at strategic locations.• Enterprise or private stand alone (micro-)servers, e.g., at home, malls, Starbucks

etc.• Nano: Integrated in devices like Wi-Fi routers, Xboxes etc.

Its not just us saying that …

“Local cloud are essential for backbone and core network scalability”

Geng Wu, Chief Scientist, Intel (Wireless World Research Forum, Oct. 22, 2013)

“Edge services enable a huge amount of rich data to be processed in real time that would be prohibitively complex and costly to deliver on a centralized cloud”

Phil Buckellew, vice president, IBM Mobile Enterprise(MWC Feb 25, 2013)

“Mobile computing can get a serious boost from distribution of cloudlets on the internet”

Victor Bahl, Director Mobility & Networking Research, Microsoft.(June 27, 2014)

AppFlux: Taming app delivery

70% less traffic -- 2x faster app delivery

How “big” should eBoxes be?

• Popularity based (p-LRU) & Cost based (c-LRU)app cache

Ephemeral Apps: No install, streaming apps

10x faster app discovery – No Performance impact