Vojdan Kjorveziroski

The recent introduction of full‐mesh virtual private network (VPN) solutions which offer near native performance, coupled with modern encryption algorithms and easy scalability as a result of a central control plane have a strong potential to enable the implementation of a seamless edge‐cloud continuum. To test the performance of existing solutions in this domain, we present a framework consisted of both essential and optional features that full‐mesh VPN solutions need to support before they can be used for interconnecting geographically dispersed compute nodes. We then apply this framework on existing offerings and select three VPN solutions for further tests: Headscale, Netbird, and ZeroTier. We evaluate their features in the context of establishing an underlay network on top of which a Kubernetes overlay network can be created. We test pod‐to‐pod TCP and UDP throughput as well as Kubernetes application programming interface (API) response times, in multiple scenarios, accounting for adverse network conditions such as packet loss or packet delay. Based on the obtained measurement results and through analysis of the underlying strengths and weaknesses of the individual implementations, we draw conclusions on the preferred VPN solution depending on the use‐case at hand, striking a balance between usability and performance.

With the growth of data driven services, vehicles are moving one step beyond their connected nature by becoming an intelligent part of the Internet of Things ecosystem. The concept of Internet of Vehicles (IoV) stems from this development describing the network of humans, vehicles and things as a means of achieving an intelligent urban infrastructure. With the next-generation communication technologies promise of providing ultra low latencies, one of the major obstacles in achieving highly-performing smart city is the distribution of computing power where the vehicles computing power is no longer sufficient for the increasing multimedia based services and the cloud introducing unacceptable latency for real time scenarios. As multi-access edge computing (MEC) can be employed to overcome these issues by co-locating additional computing power with the communication access points, the main goal of this paper is to investigate the performances of this complex MEC empowered IoV ecosystem to support the development of smart cities. Our analysis shows that large scale urban scenarios can be created to simulate all relevant aspects of the ecosystem as a whole, but more work is needed in optimising the underlying technologies and their performances.

Kubernetes is one of the most popular container orchestrators today, but IPv4 address scarcity and the lucrative reseller market introduce problems for cluster administrators who would like to deploy publicly available applications, without resorting to NAT. We discuss the extent of IPv6 support in recent versions of Kubernetes and offer solutions for IPv6 dual-stack implementation. We also provide a reference dual-stack IPv6 Kubernetes network architecture that can be employed in existing or new clusters.

Serverless computing is a new concept allowing developers to focus on the core functionality of their code, while abstracting away the underlying infrastructure. Even though there are existing commercial serverless cloud providers and open-source solutions, dealing with the explosive growth of new Internet of Things (IoT) devices requires more efficient bandwidth utilization, reduced latency, and data preprocessing closer to the source, thus reducing the overall data volume and meeting privacy regulations. Moving serverless computing to the edge of the network is a topic that is actively being researched with the aim of solving these issues. This study presents a systematic mapping review of current progress made to this effect, analyzing work published between 1 January 2015 and 1 September 2021. Using a document selection methodology which emphasizes the quality of the papers obtained through querying several popular databases with relevant search terms, we have included 64 entries, which we then further categorized into eight main categories. Results show that there is an increasing interest in this area with rapid progress being made to solve the remaining open issues, which have also been summarized in this paper. Special attention is paid to open-source efforts, as well as open-access contributions.