Skip to main content

FaaS and Curious: Performance Implications of Serverless Functions on Edge Computing Platforms

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
High Performance Computing (ISC High Performance 2021)

Abstract

Serverless is an emerging paradigm that greatly simplifies the usage of cloud resources providing unprecedented auto-scaling, simplicity, and cost-efficiency features. Thus, more and more individuals and organizations adopt it, to increase their productivity and focus exclusively on the functionality of their application. Additionally, the cloud is expanding towards the deep edge, forming a continuum in which the event-driven nature of the serverless paradigm seems to make a perfect match. The extreme heterogeneity introduced, in terms of diverse hardware resources and frameworks available, requires systematic approaches for evaluating serverless deployments. In this paper, we propose a methodology for evaluating serverless frameworks deployed on hybrid edge-cloud clusters. Our methodology focuses on key performance knobs of the serverless paradigm and applies a systematic way for evaluating these aspects in hybrid edge-cloud environments. We apply our methodology on three open-source serverless frameworks, OpenFaaS, Openwhisk, and Lean Openwhisk respectively, and we provide key insights regarding their performance implications over resource-constrained edge devices.

This work is partially funded by the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, under project EVOLVE, grant agreement No 825061 and under project AIatEDGE, grant agreement No 101015922.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Apache kafka. https://kafka.apache.org/

  2. AWS lambda. https://aws.amazon.com/lambda/

  3. Google cloud functions. https://cloud.google.com/functions

  4. Lightweight kubernetes - k3s. https://k3s.io/

  5. Loadtest. https://github.com/alexfernandez/loadtest

  6. Openfaas. https://www.openfaas.com/

  7. Prometheus. https://prometheus.io. Accessed 7 Apr 2021

  8. Serverless architecture market. https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/serverless-architecture.asp

  9. Agache, A., et al.: Firecracker: Lightweight virtualization for serverless applications. In: 17th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation (NSDI 2020), pp. 419–434 (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Aslanpour, M.S., et al.: Serverless edge computing: vision and challenges. In: 2021 Australasian Computer Science Week Multiconference, pp. 1–10 (2021)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Baldini, I., et al.: Cloud-native, event-based programming for mobile applications. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Mobile Software Engineering and Systems, pp. 287–288 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Breitgand, D.: Lean openwhisk. https://medium.com/openwhisk/lean-openwhisk-open-source-faas-for-edge-computing-fb823c6bbb9b. Accessed 7 Apr 2021

  13. Copik, M., Kwasniewski, G., Besta, M., Podstawski, M., Hoefler, T.: SEBS: a serverless benchmark suite for function-as-a-service computing. arXiv preprint arXiv:2012.14132 (2020)

  14. Gadepalli, P.K., Peach, G., Cherkasova, L., Aitken, R., Parmer, G.: Challenges and opportunities for efficient serverless computing at the edge. In: 2019 38th Symposium on Reliable Distributed Systems (SRDS), pp. 261–2615. IEEE (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Hall, A., Ramachandran, U.: An execution model for serverless functions at the edge. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Internet of Things Design and Implementation, pp. 225–236 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Jonas, E., et al.: Cloud programming simplified: a Berkeley view on serverless computing. arXiv preprint arXiv:1902.03383 (2019)

  17. Lee, H., Satyam, K., Fox, G.: Evaluation of production serverless computing environments. In: 2018 IEEE 11th International Conference on Cloud Computing (CLOUD), pp. 442–450. IEEE (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Li, J., Kulkarni, S.G., Ramakrishnan, K., Li, D.: Understanding open source serverless platforms: Design considerations and performance. In: Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Serverless Computing, pp. 37–42 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Nikolos, O.L., Papazafeiropoulos, K., Psomadakis, S., Nanos, A., Koziris, N.: Extending storage support for unikernel containers. In: Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Serverless Computing, pp. 31–36 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Park, M., Bhardwaj, K., Gavrilovska, A.: Toward lighter containers for the edge. In: 3rd USENIX Workshop on Hot Topics in Edge Computing (HotEdge 2020) (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Pfandzelter, T., Bermbach, D.: TinyFaas: a lightweight FaaS platform for edge environments. In: 2020 IEEE International Conference on Fog Computing (ICFC), pp. 17–24. IEEE (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Rausch, T., Hummer, W., Muthusamy, V., Rashed, A., Dustdar, S.: Towards a serverless platform for edge AI. In: 2nd USENIX Workshop on Hot Topics in Edge Computing (HotEdge 2019) (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Rausch, T., Rashed, A., Dustdar, S.: Optimized container scheduling for data-intensive serverless edge computing. Future Gener. Comput. Syst. 114, 259–271 (2021)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Shahrad, M., Balkind, J., Wentzlaff, D.: Architectural implications of function-as-a-service computing. In: Proceedings of the 52nd Annual IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Microarchitecture, pp. 1063–1075 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Wang, L., Li, M., Zhang, Y., Ristenpart, T., Swift, M.: Peeking behind the curtains of serverless platforms. In: 2018 USENIX Annual Technical Conference (USENIX ATC 2018), pp. 133–146 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Xiong, Y., Sun, Y., Xing, L., Huang, Y.: Extend cloud to edge with KubeEdge. In: 2018 IEEE/ACM Symposium on Edge Computing (SEC), pp. 373–377. IEEE (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Yu, T., et al.: Characterizing serverless platforms with serverlessbench. In: Proceedings of the 11th ACM Symposium on Cloud Computing, pp. 30–44 (2020)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Achilleas Tzenetopoulos .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Tzenetopoulos, A. et al. (2021). FaaS and Curious: Performance Implications of Serverless Functions on Edge Computing Platforms. In: Jagode, H., Anzt, H., Ltaief, H., Luszczek, P. (eds) High Performance Computing. ISC High Performance 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12761. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90539-2_29

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90539-2_29

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-90538-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-90539-2

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics