IoTDoc: A Docker-Container Based Architecture of IoT-Enabled Cloud System

Abstract

In recent years, cloud computing has gained considerable notoriety because it provides access to shared system resources, allowing for high computing power at low management effort. With the widespread availability of mobile and Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, we can now form cloud instantly without considering a dedicated infrastructure. However, the resource-constrained IoT devices are quite infeasible for installing virtual machines. Therefore, the mobile cloud can be used only for the tasks that require distributed sensing or computation. In order to solve this problem, we introduce IoTDoc, an architecture of mobile cloud composed of lightweight containers running on distributed IoT devices. To explore the benefits of running containers on low-cost IoT-based cloud system, we use Docker to create and orchestrate containers and run on a cloud formed by cluster of IoT devices. We provide a detail operational model of IoTDoc that illustrates cloud formation, resource allocation, container distribution, and migration. We test our model using the benchmark program Sysbench and compare the performance of IoTDoc with Amazon EC2. Our experimental result shows that IoTDoc is a viable option for cloud computing and is a more affordable, cost-effective alternative to large platform cloud computing services, specifically as a learning platform than Amazon EC2.