Container-based Service Relocation for Beyond 5G Networks

Abstract

With the advent of 5G networks, various research on Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) to provide high-reliability and ultra-low latency services are being actively conducted. MEC is an intelligent service distributed cloud technology that provides a high level of personal services by deploying cloud servers to edge networks physically closed to users. However, there is a technical issue to be solved, e.g., the service being used by a user does not exist in the new edge network, and there may even be situations in which the service cannot be provided in the new edge network. To address this, the service application must be relocated according to the location of the user’s movement. Various research works are underway to solve this service relocation issue, e.g., cold/live migration studies have been carried in legacy cloud environments. In this paper, we propose a container migration technique that guarantees a smooth service application relocation for mobile users. We design scenarios for adaptive handoff and describe the detailed operation process. In addition, we present our MEC testbed, which has been used to experiment our container migration technique.