ANIMA WG                                              CJ. Bernardos, Ed.
Internet-Draft                                                      UC3M
Intended status: Experimental                                  A. Mourad
Expires: April 23, 2022                                     InterDigital
                                                       P. Martinez-Julia
                                                                    NICT
                                                        October 20, 2021


                Autonomic setup of fog monitoring agents
                draft-bernardos-anima-fog-monitoring-05

Abstract

   The concept of fog computing has emerged driven by the Internet of
   Things (IoT) due to the need of handling the data generated from the
   end-user devices.  The term fog is referred to any networked
   computational resource in the continuum between things and cloud.  In
   fog computing, functions can be stiched together composing a service
   function chain.  These functions might be hosted on resources that
   are inherently heterogeneous, volatile and mobile.  This means that
   resources might appear and disappear, and the connectivity
   characteristics between these resources may also change dynamically.
   This calls for new orchestration solutions able to cope with dynamic
   changes to the resources in runtime or ahead of time (in anticipation
   through prediction) as opposed to today's solutions which are
   inherently reactive and static or semi-static.

   A fog monitoring solution can be used to help predicting events so an
   action can be taken before an event actually takes place.  This
   solution is composed of agents running on the fog nodes plus a
   controller hosted at another device (running in the infrastructure or
   in another fog node).  Since fog environments are inherently volatile
   and extremely dynamic, it is convenient to enable the use of
   autonomic technologies to autonomously set-up the fog monitoring
   platform.  This document aims at presenting this use case as well as
   specifying how to use GRASP as needed in this scenario.

Status of This Memo

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   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
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   Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.




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   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.1.  Problem statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     1.2.  Fog monitoring framework  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     1.3.  Supporting simple and complex monitoring metrics  . . . .   5
   2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   3.  Autonomic setup of fog monitoring framework . . . . . . . . .   6
   4.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   5.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   6.  Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   7.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10

1.  Introduction

   The concept of fog computing has emerged driven by the Internet of
   Things (IoT) due to the need of handling the data generated from the
   end-user devices.  The term fog is referred to any networked
   computational resource in the continuum between things and cloud.  A
   fog node may therefore be an infrastructure network node such as an
   eNodeB or gNodeB, an edge server, a customer premises equipment
   (CPE), or even a user equipment (UE) terminal node such as a laptop,
   a smartphone, or a computing unit on-board a vehicle, robot or drone.





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   In fog computing, functions might be organized in service function
   chains (SFCs), hosted on resources that are inherently heterogeneous,
   volatile and mobile.  This means that resources might appear and
   disappear, and the connectivity characteristics between these
   resources may also change dynamically.  This calls for new
   orchestration solutions able to cope with dynamic changes to the
   resources in runtime or ahead of time (in anticipation through
   prediction) as opposed to today's solutions which are inherently
   reactive and static or semi-static.

1.1.  Problem statement

   Figure 1 shows an exemplary scenario of a (robot) network service.  A
   robot device has its (navigation) control application running in the
   fog away from the robot, as a network service in the form of an SFC
   "F1-F2" (e.g., F1 might be in charge of identifying obstacles and F2
   takes decisions on the robot navigation).  Initially the function F1
   is assumed to be hosted at a fog node A and F2 at fog node B.  At a
   given point of time, fog node A becomes unavailable (e.g., due to low
   battery issues or the fog node A moving away from the coverage of the
   robot).  There is therefore a need to predict the need of migrating/
   moving the function F1 to another node (e.g., fog node C in the
   figure), and this needs to be done prior to the fog/edge node
   becoming no longer capable/available.  Such dynamic migration cannot
   be dealt with in today's orchestration solutions, which are rather
   reactive and static or semi-static (e.g., resources may fail, but
   this is an exceptional event, happening with low frequency, and only
   scaling actions are supported to react to SLA-related events).

              --------------
              |    ====    |
             ------+F1+----------
            / |  | ==== |  |     \
           /  |  +------+  |      \
           |  | fog node C |       \
           |  --------------        \
           |                         \
           |       --------------  ---\----------
           |       |    ====    |  |   \====    |
           | -----------+F1+------------+F2|    |
           |/      |  | ==== |  |  |  | ==== |  |
           o       |  +------+  |  |  +------+  |
           |       | fog node A |  | fog node B |
   --------+-      --------------  --------------
   |        |
   --0----0--

                        Figure 1: Example scenario



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   Existing frameworks rely on monitoring platforms that react to
   resource failure events and ensure that negotiated SLAs are met.
   However these are not designed to predict events likely to happen in
   a volatile fog environment, such as resources moving away, resources
   becoming unavailable due to battery issues or just changes in
   availability of the resources because of variations of the use of the
   local resources on the nodes.  Besides, it is not feasible in this
   kind of volatile and extremely mobile environment to perform a
   continuous monitoring and reporting of every possible variable or
   parameter from all the nodes hosting resources, as this would not
   scale and would consume many resources and generate extra overhead.

   In volatile and mobile environments, prediction (make-before-break)
   is needed, as pure reaction (break-before-make) is not enough.  This
   prediction is not generic, and depends on the nature of the network
   service/SFC: the functions of the SFC, the connectivity between them,
   the service-specific requirements, etc.  Monitoring has to be setup
   differently on the nodes, depending on the specifics of the network
   service.  Besides, in order to act proactively and predict what might
   need to be done, monitoring in such a volatile and mobile
   environments does not only involve the nodes currently hosting the
   resources running the network service/service function chain (i.e.,
   hosting a function), but also other nodes which are potential
   candidates to join either in addition or in substitution to current
   nodes for running the network service in accordance with the
   orchestration decisions.

   In the example of Figure 1, the fog node initially hosting function
   F1 (fog node A) might be running out of battery and this should be
   detected before the node A actually becomes unavailable, so the
   function F1 can be effectively migrated in a time to a different fog
   node C, capable of meeting the requirements of F1 (compute,
   networking, location, expected availability, etc.).  In order to be
   able to predict the need for such a migration and have already
   identified a target fog node where to move the function, it is needed
   to have a monitoring solution in place that instructs each node
   involved in the service (A and B), and also neighboring node
   candidate (C) to host function (F1), to monitor and report on metrics
   that are relevant for the specific network service "F1-F2" that is
   currently running.

1.2.  Fog monitoring framework

   Fog environments differ from data-center ones on three key aspects:
   heterogeneity, volatility and mobility.  The fog monitoring framework
   is used to predict events triggering and orchestration event (e.g.,
   migrating a function to a different resource).




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   The monitoring framework we propose for fog environments is composed
   of 2 logical components:

   o  Fog agents running on each fog node.  An agent is responsible for
      sending the value of a variable or parameter to a fog monitoring
      controller and to other fog agents.  What variable or parameter
      will be monitored and what data will be sent (including frequency)
      is configured per agent considering the specifics of the network
      service or SFC.  A fog agent might also take some autonomous
      actions (such as request migration of a function to a neighbor
      node) in certain situations where connectivity with the fog
      monitoring controller is temporarily unavailable.

   o  A fog monitoring controller (e.g., running at the edge or at a fog
      node).  This node obtains input from the orchestration logic (MANO
      stack) and autonomously decides what variables or parameters will
      be monitored, where will the data be collected, and how it will be
      done, based on the requirements provided by the orchestration
      logic managing the network services instantiated in the fog.  This
      configuration is specific to a network service, a function, or an
      SFC as whole.

      *  It interacts with the orchestration logic to coordinate and
         trigger orchestration events, such as function migration,
         connectivity updates, etc.  In some deployments, this entity
         might be co-located with the orchestration logic (e.g., the
         NFVO).

      *  It interacts with the fog agents to instruct what variables
         and/or parameters need to be monitored.  It also interacts to
         get the resulting monitoring data.  This interaction is not
         limited to fog agents at nodes currently involved in a given
         network service or SFC, but also includes other nodes that are
         suitable for hosting a function that needs to be migrated.
         This allows to provide the orchestration logic with candidate
         nodes in a pro-active way.

      *  It is capable of autonomously discover and set up fog agents.

1.3.  Supporting simple and complex monitoring metrics

   Fog monitoring nodes will be capable of providing raw monitoring data
   as well as processed data.  The former are obtained directly from the
   measured variables or parameters.  The latter are obtained by
   applying some processing function to several monitoring data items.
   The fog monitoring controllers will specify the function to be
   executed, which data will be collected and processed by the
   functions, and the additional parameters that will control the



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   processing and will determine the particularities of the output of
   each function.

   The complexity of the functions that can be executed is arbitrary.
   They can be either pre-instructed in the fog agents or dynamically
   instructed by the requester (the fog monitoring controller) by
   providing the sequence to execute the functions and their input
   parameters.

   Complex monitoring metrics, the processed data, can also be used as
   part of the condition that determines the distributed and autonomic
   actions.  Thus, the logic that defines those actions is simplified
   and the actuation components can be concentrated on their task
   without requiring extra effort to process the raw monitoring data.

   Adding support for complex monitoring metrics enables the fog
   monitoring framework to avoid the transmission of unneeded data and
   thus optimize its overall operation.  For example, if the controller
   is interested in the average of the CPU load of a fog agent for the
   last 5 minutes, it can just request it, providing the period to
   average as input parameter and specifying the source from which
   measuring the CPU load variable.

2.  Terminology

   The following terms are using in ths document:

   fog:          Fog goes to the Extreme Edge, that is the closest
                 possible to the user including on the user device
                 itself.

   fog node:     Any device that is capable of participating in the Fog.
                 A Fog node might be volatile, mobile and constrained
                 (in terms of computing resources).  Fog nodes may be
                 heterogeneous and may belong to different owners.

   orchestrator: In this document we use orchestrator and NFVO terms
                 interchangeably.

3.  Autonomic setup of fog monitoring framework

   Fog nodes autonomously start fog agents at the bootstrapping, then
   start looking for other agents and the fog monitoring controller.
   This autonomic setup can be performed using GRASP.  The procedure is
   represented in Figure 2.  The different steps are described next:






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   +--------+    +--------+    +--------+
   |  fog   |    |  fog   |    |  fog   |
   | node C |    | node A |    | node B |                       +------+
   |        |    |        |    |        |                       | fog  |
   | |    | |    | |    | |    | |    | |        +------+       | mon. |
   | +----+ |    | +----+ |    | +----+ |        | NFVO |       | ctrl |
   +--------+    +--------+    +--------+        +------+       +------+
                      |             |                |              |
               (fog nodes A & B bootstrap)           |              |
                      |             |                |              |
                      |             |   periodic mcast advertisement|
                      |             |               (ID, fog_scope) |
                      |             |  <----------------------------+
                      | Mcast discovery (fog_node_ID, scope)        |
                      +-------------------------------------------->|
                      +------------>|                |              |
                      |    Mcast discovery (fog_node_ID, scope)     |
                      |             +------------------------------>|
                      |<------------+                |              |
                      |             |                |              |
                      |       Unicast advertisement (ID, fog_scope) |
                      |             |<------------------------------+
                      |<--------------------------------------------+
                      |             |                |              |
                      |    Unicast registration (ID, fog_node_ID    |
                      |             |            fog_scope, capab.) |
                      |             +------------------------------>|
                      +-------------------------------------------->|
                      |             |                |              |
               (fog nodes A & B registered)          |              |
                      |             |                |              |
   (fog node C bootstraps)          |                |              |
        |             |             |                |              |
        | Mcast discovery (fog_node_ID, scope)       |              |
        +---------------------------------------------------------->|
        +-------------------------->|                |              |
        +------------>|       Unicast advertisement (ID, fog_scope) |
        |<----------------------------------------------------------+
        |<--------------------------+                |              |
        |<------------+    Unicast registration (ID, fog_node_ID    |
        |             |             |            fog_scope, capab.) |
        +---------------------------------------------------------->|
   (fog node C registered)          |                |              |
        |             |             |                |              |

                  Figure 2: Autonomic setup of fog agents





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   o  The fog monitoring controller is regularly sending periodic
      multicast advertisement messages, which include its ID as well as
      the scope for the advertisement messages (i.e., the scope of where
      the messages have to be flooded).

      M_DISCOVERY messages are used, with new objectives and objective
      options.  GRASP specifies that "an objective option is used to
      identify objectives for the purposes of discovery, negotiation or
      synchronization".  New objective options are defined for the
      purposes of discovering potential fog agents with certain
      characteristics.  Non-limiting examples of these options are
      listed below (note that the names are just examples, and the ones
      used have to be registered by the IANA):

      *  FOGNODERADIO: used to specify a given type of radio technology,
         e.g.,: WiFi (version), D2D, LTE, 5G, Bluetooth (version), etc.

      *  FOGNODECONNECTIVITY: used to specify a given type of
         connectivity, e.g., layer-2, IPv4, IPv6.

      *  FOGNODEVIRTUALIZATION: used to specify a given type of
         virtualization supported by the node where the agent runs.
         Examples are: hypervisor (type), container, micro-kernel, bare-
         metal, etc.

      *  FOGNODEDOMAIN: used to specify the domain/owner of the node.
         This is useful to support operation of multiple domains/
         operators simultaneously on the same fog network.

      An example of discovery message using GRASP would be the following
      (in this example, the fog monitoring controller is identified by
      its IPv6 address: 2001:DB8:1111:2222:3333:4444:5555:6666):

      [M_DISCOVERY, 13948745, h'20010db8111122223333444455556666',
      ["FOGDOMAIN", F_SYNCH_bits, 2, "operator1"]]

      GRASP is used to allow the fog agents and the controller discovery
      in an autonomic way.  The extensions defined above, together with
      the use of properly scoped multicast addresses (as explained
      below), allow to precisely define which nodes participate in the
      monitoring and to gather their principal characteristics.

   o  When a fog node bootstraps, such as nodes A and B in the figure,
      they start sending multicast discovery messages within a given
      scope, that is, the intended area that composes the fog.  The
      definition of the scope depends on the scenario, and examples of
      possible scopes are:




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      *  All-resources of a given manufacturer.

      *  All-resources of a given type.

      *  All-resources of a given administrative domain.

      *  All-resources of a given user.

      *  All-resources within a topological network distance (e.g.,
         number of hops).

      *  All-resources within a geographical location.

      *  Etc.

      Combination of previous scopes are also possible.

      The discovery messages are multicast within the scope, reaching
      all the nodes that compose the specified fog resources.  This can
      be done for example using well defined IPv6 multicast addresses,
      specified for each of the different scopes.  This signaling is
      based on GRASP.  Different IPv6 multicast addresses need to be
      defined to reach each different scope, using scopes equal or
      larger than Admin-Local according to [RFC7346].

   o  In response to multicast fog discovery messages, the fog
      monitoring controller replies with unicast messages providing its
      information.

   o  Fog agents can then register with a controller.  The registration
      message is unicast, and includes information on the capabilities
      of the fog node, such as:

      *  Type of node.

      *  Vendor.

      *  Energy source: battery-powered or not.

      *  Connectivity (number of network interfaces and information
         associated to them, such as radio technology type, layer-2 and
         layer-3 addresses, etc.).

      *  Etc.

      Note that registration to multiple fog monitoring controller
      instances could also be possible if a fog node wants to belong to
      several fog domains at the same time (but note that how the



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      orchestration of the same resource is done by multiple
      orchestrators is not covered by this invention).  The defined
      mechanisms support this via the use of fog IDs and FOGNODEDOMAIN
      options.

   o  A fog node C bootstraps after nodes A and B are already
      registered.  The same discovery process is followed by fog node C,
      but in addition to the regular advertisement, registration
      procedures described before, existing neighboring fog agents (such
      as A and B in this example), might also respond to discovery
      messages sent by bootstrapping nodes to provide required
      information.  This makes the procedure faster, more efficient and
      reliable.  In addition to helping the fog monitoring controller in
      the fog agent discovery process, fog agents learn themselves about
      the existence and associated capabilities of other fog agents.
      This can be used to allow autonomous monitoring by the fog agents
      without the involvement of the central controller.

4.  IANA Considerations

   TBD.

5.  Security Considerations

   TBD.

6.  Acknowledgments

   The work in this draft will be further developed and explored under
   the framework of the H2020 5G-DIVE project (Grant 859881).

7.  Informative References

   [RFC7346]  Droms, R., "IPv6 Multicast Address Scopes", RFC 7346,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7346, August 2014,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7346>.

Authors' Addresses

   Carlos J. Bernardos (editor)
   Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
   Av. Universidad, 30
   Leganes, Madrid  28911
   Spain

   Phone: +34 91624 6236
   Email: cjbc@it.uc3m.es
   URI:   http://www.it.uc3m.es/cjbc/



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   Alain Mourad
   InterDigital Europe

   Email: Alain.Mourad@InterDigital.com
   URI:   http://www.InterDigital.com/


   Pedro Martinez-Julia
   NICT
   4-2-1, Nukui-Kitamachi, Koganei
   Tokyo  184-8795
   Japan

   Phone: +81 42 327 7293
   Email: pedro@nict.go.jp




































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