Collaborative Research: Elements: EdgeVPN: Seamless Secure VirtualNetworking for Edge and Fog Computing

边缘计算包括各种技术，这些技术有望在互联网上实现新的应用程序，这些应用程序支持互联网边缘附近的数据捕获，存储，处理和通信。边缘计算环境带来了新的挑战，因为设备是异构的，在地理上分布广泛，并且在物理上更接近最终用户，例如移动的和物联网（IoT）设备。该项目开发了EdgeVPN，这是一种解决边缘计算应用程序网络的基本挑战的软件元素：建立虚拟专用网络（VPN）以逻辑地互连边缘设备，同时在数据流经互联网链路时保护数据的隐私和完整性。更具体地说，该项目中开发的EdgeVPN软件解决了创建虚拟网络的技术挑战，这些虚拟网络可以自组织成可扩展的弹性系统，可以显着降低部署私有通信结构的门槛，以支持现有和未来的边缘应用程序。有广泛的应用程序准备从EdgeVPN中受益;特别是，该项目的动机是淡水湖泊和水库的生态监测和预测，国防应用中的态势感知和指挥控制以及智能和互联城市。由于EdgeVPN是开源的，并免费向公众提供，该软件将通过为研究人员，开发人员和从业人员提供一套工具来促进边缘计算的创新和未来应用，从而促进科学进步并造福整个社会。边缘计算应用需要跨多个网络提供商部署，并利用低延迟，高吞吐量处理来自大量分布式物联网设备的数据流。实现这一目标不仅需要底层物理网络的进步，还需要一个易于使用的可靠通信结构，并在现有互联网上运行，而无需改变基础设施。该项目中开发的EdgeVPN开源软件是一个覆盖虚拟网络，允许边缘计算资源组以及云资源之间的无缝私有网络。EdgeVPN在如何集成方面很新颖：1）灵活的组管理和消息传送服务，以创建和管理对分布在因特网上的设备进行分组的对等VPN隧道，2）可扩展的结构化覆盖网络拓扑，其支持单播、多播和广播的原语，3）软件定义网络（SDN）作为控制平面，以支持通过对等数据路径的消息路由，以及4）网络虚拟化和与虚拟化计算/存储端点与Docker容器的集成，以允许现有的互联网应用程序不加修改地工作。EdgeVPN自组织隧道的覆盖拓扑，使互联网中不同提供商连接的边缘设备之间的加密，认证通信，可能受到防火墙和网络地址转换（NAT）施加的移动性和约束。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Edge computing encompasses a variety of technologies that are poised to enable new applications across the Internet that support data capture, storage, processing and communication near the edge of the Internet. Edge computing environments pose new challenges, as devices are heterogeneous, widely distributed geographically, and physically closer to end users, such as mobile and Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices. This project develops EdgeVPN, a software element that addresses a fundamental challenge of networking for edge computing applications: establishing Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to logically interconnect edge devices, while preserving privacy and integrity of data as it flows through Internet links. More specifically, the EdgeVPN software developed in this project addresses technical challenges in creating virtual networks that self-organize into scalable, resilient systems that can significantly lower the barrier to entry to deploying a private communication fabric in support of existing and future edge applications. There are a wide range of applications that are poised to benefit from EdgeVPN; in particular, this project is motivated by use cases in ecological monitoring and forecasting for freshwater lakes and reservoirs, situational awareness and command-and-control in defense applications, and smart and connected cities. Because EdgeVPN is open-source and freely available to the public, the software will promote progress of science and benefit society at large by contributing to the set of tools available to researchers, developers and practitioners to catalyze innovation and future applications in edge computing.Edge computing applications need to be deployed across multiple network providers, and harness low-latency, high-throughput processing of streams of data from large numbers of distributed IoT devices. Achieving this goal will demand not only advances in the underlying physical network, but also require a trustworthy communication fabric that is easy to use, and operates atop the existing Internet without requiring changes to the infrastructure. The EdgeVPN open-source software developed in this project is an overlay virtual network that allows seamless private networking among groups of edge computing resources, as well as cloud resources. EdgeVPN is novel in how it integrates: 1) a flexible group management and messaging service to create and manage peer-to-peer VPN tunnels grouping devices distributed across the Internet, 2) a scalable structured overlay network topology supporting primitives for unicast, multicast and broadcast, 3) software-defined networking (SDN) as the control plane to support message routing through the peer-to-peer data path, and 4) network virtualization and integration with virtualized compute/storage endpoints with Docker containers to allow existing Internet applications to work unmodified. EdgeVPN self-organizes an overlay topology of tunnels that enables encrypted, authenticated communication among edge devices connected across disparate providers in the Internet, possibly subject to mobility and constraints imposed by firewalls and Network Address Translation, NATs. It builds upon standard SDN interfaces to implement packet manipulation primitives for virtualization supporting the ubiquitous Ethernet and IP-layer protocols.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.