Sami Yangui

CompatibleOne: The Open Source Cloud Broker

The adoption of Cloud computing as a new business model has induced the proliferation of several Cloud service providers. Cloud end users are then faced with choosing the appropriate provider offers in terms of supported technologies, geographic locations, security, access rules, billing, etc. In this paper, we propose a new Cloud broker called CompatibleOne which provides solutions to assist Cloud end users in their providers choice. The CompatibleOne broker is based on open standards, mainly CDMI and OCCI, and uses our new defined object-based description model called CORDS. CORDS serves to model and manage the various Cloud resources that manipulates the main CompatibleOne platform called ACCORDS. We motivate our solution with real use case scenarios and an implementation to show its feasibility.

Scalable Service Containers

Cloud Computing is a new supplement, consumption, and delivery model for IT services based on Internet protocols. It typically involves provisioning of dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources. In this environment, there are several issues related to the inadequacies of hosting platforms and mechanisms to ensure the smooth running of service-based applications (communication protocols, ESB, Service containers, etc.). In particular, architectures and implementations of service containers are not adapted to Cloud environments. In this paper, we present a new service container dedicated to one deployed service that avoids the processing limits of classical services containers. Our approach addresses scalability by reducing memory consumption and response time. The proposed service container is evaluated in several situations against well known services containers within a real Cloud Computing network.

A Comprehensive Survey on Fog Computing: State-of-the-Art and Research Challenges

Cloud computing with its three key facets (i.e., Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service, and Software-as-a-Service) and its inherent advantages (e.g., elasticity and scalability) still faces several challenges. The distance between the cloud and the end devices might be an issue for latency-sensitive applications such as disaster management and content delivery applications. Service level agreements (SLAs) may also impose processing at locations where the cloud provider does not have data centers. Fog computing is a novel paradigm to address such issues. It enables provisioning resources and services outside the cloud, at the edge of the network, closer to end devices, or eventually, at locations stipulated by SLAs. Fog computing is not a substitute for cloud computing but a powerful complement. It enables processing at the edge while still offering the possibility to interact with the cloud. This paper presents a comprehensive survey on fog computing. It critically reviews the state of the art in the light of a concise set of evaluation criteria. We cover both the architectures and the algorithms that make fog systems. Challenges and research directions are also introduced. In addition, the lessons learned are reviewed and the prospects are discussed in terms of the key role fog is likely to play in emerging technologies such as tactile Internet.

Web Service Micro-Container for Service-based Applications in Cloud Environments

Cloud computing describes a new supplement, consumption, and delivery model for IT services based on Internet protocols, and it typically involves provisioning of dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources. In this paper, we propose to design and implement a new service micro-container to address scalability by reducing memory consumption and response time. We propose to dedicate a services micro-container for each deployed service and thus avoid the processing limits of classical services containers. Our micro-container is evaluated and compared to conventional Web containers to highlight our contribution.

A platform as-a-service for hybrid cloud/fog environments

Fog computing brings cloud close to end-users and data sources by enabling computation and storage at the edges of the network. An application can have some of its components running in a “distant” cloud and interacting with the other components running in the fog, closer to end-users and data sources such as wireless sensors. Low latency is the main benefit. Applications spanning cloud and fog, such as Internet of Things (IoT) applications, are still provisioned manually nowadays. This paper proposes an architecture for a Platform as-a-Service (PaaS) to automate applications provisioning in a hybrid cloud/fog environment. Cloud Foundry is used as the basis for its implementation. As a use case, the proposed PaaS was employed to provision a simple component-based IoT application that detects fire and dispatches robots to fight the fire. A prototype is built and measurements are made.

CloudServ: PaaS Resources Provisioning for Service-Based Applications

Cloud Computing involves typically provisioning of virtualized and often dynamically scalable resources for IT services operating. Study of developed Cloud platforms shows that they present limitation related to deployment and running of service-based applications that are built from heterogeneous services (programming languages, communication protocols and/or hosting frameworks). In this paper, we present CloudServ, a Platform as-a-Service (PaaS), that is dedicated to service-based applications. Its model extends the Open Cloud Computing Interface (OCCI) specification that is mainly dedicated to IaaS resources. In CloudServ, PaaS resources are continuously provisioned along with the arrival of deployment requests of service-based applications. Experiments of CloudServ demonstrate its good behaviour and highlights its scalability for a huge number of deployed services in Cloud context comparing to classical Cloud platforms.

Mobile Service Micro-containers for Cloud Environments

Study of mobility on Cloud infrastructures and platforms shows that they present limitation related to deployment and running of service-based applications that are built from heterogeneous services (heterogeneous programming languages, communication protocols and/or hosting frameworks). In this paper, we present mobile service-containers that are able to host services on the Cloud and migrate from one virtual machine to another independently of the programming languages and/or bindings of the deployed services. Mobile micro-containers are extensions from our already developed micro-containers for hosting service-based applications on the Cloud. Several approaches were considered and discussed to provide mobility for service micro-containers. Experiments are conducted to compare these approaches but also to determine the overhead of the added mobility.

An OCCI Compliant Model for PaaS Resources Description and Provisioning

The proliferation of Cloud Computing platforms has led to the emergence of a large number of heterogeneous platform resources, services, application programming interfaces and supported frameworks and technologies. On one hand, supported frameworks vary from one Platform-as-aService (PaaS) to another depending on their implementations and capacities. On the other hand, each PaaS provides a specific and proprietary scenario to provision adequate resources and to deploy applications. In this paper, we propose a new PaaS-independent approach to provision in a unified way, appropriate PaaS resources for applications deployment in Cloud platforms. Our approach aims at addressing vendor lock-in restrictions and applications portability issues in existing Cloud platforms. To that end, we define a unified description model based on the Open Cloud Computing Interface (OCCI) core model that allows describing and managing an abstract Cloud resource. Our defined model consists of two main parts: (1) an OCCI platform extension which describes PaaS resources that can be provisioned by a PaaS to set-up an appropriate environment and (2) an OCCI application extension which describes application resources to deploy an application in this environment. We show the feasibility of our approach with an implementation and a use case of a realistic deployment scenario in Cloud Foundry PaaS.

A demo of a PaaS for IoT applications provisioning in hybrid cloud/fog environment

This demo will show the key features of a Platform as-a-Service (PaaS) we have proposed in a research paper accepted for presentation at IEEE LANMAN 2016 conference. The proposed PaaS enables IoT applications provisioning in hybrid cloud/fog environments. Two goals are assigned to the demo. On the one hand, we will highlight how IoT applications can be provisioned in such environments. On the other hand, we will show concretely the advantages these hybrid environments have over traditional cloud environments. The provisioning in these hybrid environments enables latency reduction and processing performance enhancement. Indeed, in order to reduce latency, the applications can have some of its components running in a distant cloud and interacting with the other components running in the fog, closer to IoT devices.

A Cloud Platform-as-a-Service for multimedia conferencing service provisioning

Multimedia conferencing is the real-time exchange of multimedia content between multiple parties. It is the basis of a wide range of applications (e.g., multimedia multiplayer game). Cloud-based provisioning of the conferencing services on which these applications rely will bring benefits, such as easy service provisioning and elastic scalability. However, it remains a big challenge. This paper proposes a PaaS for conferencing service provisioning. The proposed PaaS is based on a business model from the state of the art. It relies on conferencing IaaSs that, instead of VMs, offer conferencing substrates (e.g., dial-in signaling, video mixer and audio mixer). The PaaS enables composition of new conferences from substrates on the fly. This has been prototyped in this paper and, in order to evaluate it, a conferencing IaaS is also implemented. Performance measurements are also made.