AuctionWhisk: using an auction-inspired approach for function placement in serverless fog platforms

Bermbach, D., Bader, J., Hasenburg, J., Pfandzelter, T. and Thamsen, L. (2022) AuctionWhisk: using an auction-inspired approach for function placement in serverless fog platforms. Software: Practice and Experience, 52(5), pp. 1143-1169. (doi: 10.1002/spe.3058)

Abstract

The Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) paradigm has a lot of potential as a computing model for fog environments comprising both cloud and edge nodes, as compute requests can be scheduled across the entire fog continuum in a fine-grained manner. When the request rate exceeds capacity limits at the resource-constrained edge, some functions need to be offloaded toward the cloud. In this article, we present an auction-inspired approach in which application developers bid on resources while fog nodes decide locally which functions to execute and which to offload in order to maximize revenue. Unlike many current approaches to function placement in the fog, our approach can work in an online and decentralized manner. We also present our proof-of-concept prototype AuctionWhisk that illustrates how such an approach can be implemented in a real FaaS platform. Through a number of simulation runs and system experiments, we show that revenue for overloaded nodes can be maximized without dropping function requests.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Thamsen, Dr Lauritz
• Authors: Bermbach, D., Bader, J., Hasenburg, J., Pfandzelter, T., and Thamsen, L.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
• Journal Name: Software: Practice and Experience
• Publisher: Wiley
• ISSN: 0038-0644
• ISSN (Online): 1097-024X
• Published Online: 06 December 2021
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Software: Practice and Experience 52(5): 1143-1169
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

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