Serverless Computing in Cloud-Edge Scenarios

Matteo Trentin

doi:10.21996/58431772-aba5-4551-978d-e0846c3a21a3

Serverless Computing in Cloud-Edge Scenarios

Matteo Trentin^*

^*Kontaktforfatter

Publikation: Afhandling › Ph.d.-afhandling

Abstract

Denne afhandling undersøger udvidelser til serverless computing, med fokus på Function-as a-Service (FaaS), ved at udvide anvendelsesområdet ud over rent offentlige, cloudbaserede arkitekturer til edge-systemer og hybride cloud-edge-implementeringer. Inkluderingen af disse miljøer medfører flere fordele, såsom reduktion af behovet for datatransmission og oprettelsen af et cloud-edge-continuum, således at arbejdsbelastninger kan flyttes på en transparent måde. Understøttelse af disse miljøer skaber også mulighed, for at integrere Internet of Things (IoT)-enheder på en sikker og transparent måde.

Inkorporering af edge-systemer medfører imidlertid nye udfordringer, der stammer fra heterogene netværkstopologier og enheder med begrænsede ressourcer. For at imødegå disse udfordringer introducerer dette arbejde flere nye planlægningsmetoder, der udtrykkes gennem udvidelser af APP (Application Priority Policies), et konfigurationssprog for FaaS-schedulers. Disse udvidelser, dvs. topology-aware APP (tAPP), affinity-aware APP (aAPP) og cost-aware APP (cAPP), forbedrer henholdsvis schedulers ved at fokusere på den geografiske fordeling af senheder, affiniteten mellem funktioner og minimering af den forventede ventetid ved kommunikation med eksterne tjenester.

Med samme formål præsenterer afhandlingen også FunLess, en open-source serverless platform, der er rettet mod edge- og cloud-edge-implementeringer. Platformen bruger WebAssemblytil at eksekvere funktioner og udnytter dens cross-platform natur og de små binære filestørelser til bedre at målrette enheder med begrænsede ressourcer.

Endelig undersøger arbejdet et anvendelsesscenarie, hvor droner fungerer som mobile beregningsenheder inden for platformen. Dette system demonstrerer udførelse og aflastning af opgaver i realtid under upålidelige og mobile netværksforhold, valideret gennem en simuleret katastrofesituation.

Originalsprog	Engelsk
Bevilgende institution	Syddansk Universitet
Vejledere/rådgivere	Mauro, Jacopo, Vejleder Zavattaro, Gianluigi, Vejleder, Ekstern person
Dato for forsvar	2. feb. 2026
Udgiver	Syddansk Universitet. Det Naturvidenskabelige Fakultet
DOI	https://doi.org/10.21996/58431772-aba5-4551-978d-e0846c3a21a3
Status	Udgivet - 8. jan. 2026

Note vedr. afhandling

Afhandlingen kan læses på SDUs bibliotek. 

Dokumenter og links

10.21996/58431772-aba5-4551-978d-e0846c3a21a3

SDU link

Tjek adgangen til materialet i Syddansk Universitetsbiblioteks søgemaskine

Dokument under embargo

Open Access Version
Forlagets udgivne version, 5,67 MB
Embargo slutter: 08/01/2027

Citationsformater

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AB - This thesis investigates extensions to serverless computing, and specifically Function-as-a-Service (FaaS), by broadening its scope beyond purely public, cloud-based architectures, towards edge systems and hybrid cloud-edge deployments. The inclusion of such environments brings several benefits, such as the reduction of data transmission needs and the creation of a cloud-edge continuum across which workloads can be transparently moved. Supporting these environments also creates the possibility to integrate Internet of Things(IoT) devices in a secure, transparent way. Incorporating edge systems, however, brings new challenges stemming from heterogeneous network topologies and resource-constrained devices. To address these, this work introduces several novel scheduling approaches, expressed through extensions of APP(Application Priority Policies), a configuration language for FaaS schedulers. These extensions, i.e., topology-aware APP (tAPP), affinity-aware APP (aAPP), and cost-aware APP(cAPP), respectively improve schedulers by focusing on the geographical distribution ofworkers, the affinity between functions, and the minimisation of the expected latency when communicating with external services. To the same end, the thesis also presents FunLess, an open-source serverless platform geared towards edge and cloud-edge deployments. The platform makes use of WebAssembly for function execution, leveraging its cross-architecture nature and the small size of its binaries to better target resource-constrained devices. Finally, the work explores an application scenario where drones act as mobile computational nodes within the platform. This system demonstrates real-time task execution and offloading in unreliable and mobile network conditions, validated through a simulated emergency response use case.

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Serverless Computing in Cloud-Edge Scenarios

Abstract

Note vedr. afhandling

Dokumenter og links

SDU link

Dokument under embargo

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Citationsformater