Can mobile cloudlets support mobile applications?

• Published in: IEEE INFOCOM 2014 - IEEE Conference on Computer Communications pp. 1060 - 1068
• Main Authors: Yujin Li, Wenye Wang
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.04.2014
• Subjects: Cloud computing; Computers; Conferences; Mobile communication; Mobile computing; Mobile handsets; Peer-to-peer computing
• ISSN: 0743-166X; 2641-9874
• DOI: 10.1109/INFOCOM.2014.6848036

A mobile cloudlet is a set of resource-rich mobile devices - referred to as cloudlet nodes - that an initiator mobile device can connect to for services. In this paper, we examine the fundamental mobile cloudlet properties that unfold whether and when a mobile cloudlet can provide mobile application service. Specifically, we investigate the cloudlet size, cloudlet node's lifetime and reachable time. Traces and mathematical analysis demonstrate that 1) the more frequently mobile devices meet, the larger the pool of computing resources an initiator can access; 2) intermittent connection between devices has little adverse effect on the optimal computing performance of mobile cloudlet in the long run; 3) the ratio E(T C )/[E(T I )+E(T C )] indicates the connection likelihood of an initiator and a cloudlet node (i.e., reachability of the cloudlet node), where T C and T I are their contact and inter-contact time. We further derive upper and lower bounds on computing capacity and computing speed of a mobile cloudlet. An initiator can use both bounds to decide whether to offload its task to remote clouds or local mobile cloudlets for better mobile application services.