Extemporaneous Micro-Mobile Service Execution Without Code Sharing

Zheng Song, Minh Le, Young-Woo Kwon, Eli Tilevich

Abstract: In mobile edge computing, a mobile or IoT device requests a nearby device to execute some functionality and return back the results. However, the executable code must either be pre-installed on the nearby device or be transferred from the requester device, reducing the utility or safety of device-to-device computing, respectively. To address this problem, we present a micro-service middleware that executes services on nearby mobile devices, with a trusted middleman distributing executable code. Our solution comprises (1) a trusted store of vetted mobile services, self-contained executable modules, downloaded to devices and invoked at runtime; and (2) a middleware system that matches service requirements to available devices to orchestrate the device-to-device communication. Our experiments show that our solution (1) enables executing mobile services on nearby devices, without requiring a device to receive executable code from an untrusted party; (2) supports mobile edge computing in practical settings, increasing performance and decreasing energy consumption; (3) reduces the mobile development workload by reusing services.