Supporting the evolution of applications deployed on edge-based infrastructures using multi-layer feature models

Abstract

The proliferation of cyber-physical systems has encouraged the emergence of new technologies and paradigms to improve the performance of IoT-based applications. Edge Computing proposes using the nearby devices in the frontier/Edge of the access network for deploying application tasks. However, the functionality of cyberphysical 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 edge can complicate the deployment of evolved applications.The aim of our approach is to apply Multi Layer Feature Models, which capture the variability of applications and the infrastructure, to support the deployment in edge-based environments of cyber-physical systems applications. This separation can support the evolution of application and infrastructure. Considering that IoT/Edge/Cloud infrastructures are usually shared by many applications, the SPL deployment process has to assure that there will be enough resources for all of them, informing developers about the alternatives of deployment. Prior to its deployment and leaning on the infrastructure feature models, 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 which is the application configuration that can be hosted in the current evolved infrastructure.