US Ignite: Collaborative Research: Focus Area 2: Resilient Virtual Path Management for Scalable Data-intensive Computing at Network-Edges

该项目涉及在灾难事件期间为公共安全启动和管理托管可视化云计算（VCC）应用程序的虚拟路径网络。该项目满足了事件支持VCC应用程序的需求，该应用程序对于第一响应者通过以下方式获得快速视觉态势感知至关重要：(a)在事件现场收集的图像/视频数据的可扩展处理，以及(b)使用瘦客户端技术进行协作。还将与创伤护理医院（具有剧院规模用例）和县消防区（具有区域规模用例）等第一反应机构合作进行有针对性的示范。具体来说，该项目的目标是：(i)研究虚拟路径管理算法和大规模模拟，目的是提供有弹性的VCC应用程序，即使在主机/链路故障、主机移动性和网络分区的情况下也能保证性能；以及（ii）在混合雾云基础设施（如GENI和CloudLab）的实验测试平台上演示为此类路径管理算法提供弹性资源。该项目的突出理论贡献在于为虚拟路径嵌入和计算放置问题设计了新颖的分布式和联合算法，用于实时VCC应用。特别是，该项目寻求对受限寻径器方案的解决方案改进，例如，在存在严重主机和链路故障、主机移动性和网络分区的情况下，虚拟网络嵌入或流量转向。这项工作还通过一种允许雾云计算位置选择权衡的方案，推进了应用感知网络设计的知识。特别是，该方法基于在延迟关键型VCC应用背景下解耦小型/大型视觉数据处理实例：(a)“战区尺度”用于事件现场的第一响应者和事件指挥官人员协调，以及(b)“区域尺度”用于跟踪来自机载平台的广域运动图像中不同地理尺度的感兴趣对象。

This project addresses bootstrapping and managing virtual path networks hosting Visual Cloud Computing (VCC) applications for public safety during disaster incidents. This project meets the needs of incident-supporting VCC applications that are essential for first responders to gain rapid visual situational awareness through: (a) scalable processing of imagery/video data collected at incident scenes, and (b) use of thin-client technologies for collaboration. Targeted demonstrations will also be conducted in collaboration with first-responder agencies such as trauma care hospitals (with theater-scale use cases) and a county fire protection district (with regional-scale use cases). Specifically, the project objectives are to: (i) investigate virtual path management algorithms and large-scale simulations with the aim of providing resilient VCC applications with guaranteed performance even in the presence of host/link failures, host mobility and network partitioning; and (ii) demonstrate resilient resource provisioning for such path management algorithms within hybrid fog-cloud infrastructures on experimental testbeds such as GENI and CloudLab.The salient theoretical contribution of this project lays in the design of novel distributed and federated algorithms for the virtual path embedding and computation placement problems, for real-time VCC applications. In particular, the project seeks a solution improvement for constrained path finders schemes, e.g., virtual network embedding or traffic steering, in presence of severe host and link failures, host mobility and network partitioning. The work also advances knowledge of application-aware network design through a scheme that allows fog-cloud compute location selection tradeoffs. In particular, the approach is based on decoupling small/large instances of visual data processing in the context of latency-critical VCC applications at: (a) "theater-scale" for first-responder and incident commander personnel co-ordination at an incident scene, and (b) "regional-scale" for tracking objects of interest across different geographical scales in wide-area motion imagery from airborne platforms.