Mobile Clouds: Exploiting Distributed Resources in Wireless, Mobile and Social Networks

6

Mobile Cloud Formation and Maintenance

Nature is a mutable cloud which is always and never the same.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

This chapter discusses the dynamics of mobile clouds, particularly the situations where clouds experience changes affecting their operation. The following three mobile cloud operation stages can be identified: cloud formation, cloud operation and cloud maintenance. The first and last stages are the most relevant concerning dynamic changes, while the second stage assumes that the cloud remains unchanged during that period. In addition to studying cloud formation and maintenance stages, this chapter also discusses possible methods that can be used to manage the changes in the cloud. Service discovery, deeply related with cloud formation and maintenance, is also considered in this chapter.

6.1 Introduction

Mobile devices, the nodes of a mobile cloud, freely move and roam, and hence a cloud is in principle subject to dynamic changes during its operation. Changes include mobile devices joining or leaving the cloud, as well as devices moving within it, altering the connectivity between nodes and therefore changing the cloud topology. Changes also take place due to fluctuations in the availability and instantaneous conditions of resources residing in the nodes. A key issue that needs to be understood is how to manage these changes in an efficient way. This chapter discusses this issue, taking into consideration the particular characteristics of mobile clouds. ...