PuzzleMesh: A Puzzle Model to Build Mesh of Agnostic Services for Edge-Fog-Cloud

Abstract

This paper presents the design, development, and evaluation of PuzzleMesh, an agnostic service mesh composition model to process large volumes of data in edge-fog-cloud environments. This model is based on a puzzle metaphor where pieces, puzzles, and metapuzzles represent self-contained autonomous and reusable software artifacts encapsulated into containers and published as microservices. A <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">piece</i> represents the integration of apps with I/O interfaces ( <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">loops</i> / <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">sockets</i> ), parallel processing, and management software. A <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">puzzle</i> represents a processing structure (e.g., workflows) built coupling pieces through loops and sockets. Puzzles integrate structures with a microservice architecture, implicit continuous dataflows, and transparent data exchange management software. A <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">metapuzzle</i> represents a recursive assemble of puzzles. A mesh represents a pool of pieces, puzzles, and metapuzzles available for designers to choose artifacts to build services. A prototype developed using PuzzleMesh model was evaluated through case studies about the automatic construction of processing services for the acquisition, pre-processing, manufacturing, preserving, and visualizing of satellite imagery. A qualitative comparison revealed that PuzzleMesh provides a flexible way to build reusable and portable services and to improve the usability of the services. The case study also revealed that PuzzleMesh yielded better performance results than other state-of-the-art tools.