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

边缘计算包含各种技术，这些技术有望实现跨互联网的新应用，这些应用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，因为设备是异类的、地理上分布广泛的，并且物理上更接近最终用户，例如移动和物联网(IoT)设备。该项目开发了EdgeVPN，这是一种软件元素，可解决边缘计算应用程序联网的一个基本挑战：建立虚拟专用网络(VPN)以在逻辑上互连边缘设备，同时保护流经互联网链路的数据的隐私和完整性。更具体地说，在该项目中开发的EdgeVPN软件解决了在创建虚拟网络方面的技术挑战，这些虚拟网络可以自组织成可扩展、有弹性的系统，可以显著降低部署专用通信结构以支持现有和未来边缘应用的门槛。EdgeVPN将带来广泛的应用；尤其是，该项目的动机是淡水湖泊和水库的生态监测和预报、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，向公众免费提供，该软件将通过为研究人员、开发人员和从业者提供一套工具来促进边缘计算的创新和未来应用，从而推动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，还需要易于使用、在现有互联网上运行且无需更改基础设施的值得信赖的通信结构。本项目开发的EdgeVPN开源软件是一个覆盖的虚拟网络，允许边缘计算资源组之间以及云资源之间无缝的私有网络。EdgeVPN的新颖之处在于它集成了：1)灵活的组管理和消息传递服务，用于创建和管理分布在互联网上的对等VPN隧道分组设备；2)可扩展的结构化覆盖网络拓扑，支持单播、组播和广播原语；3)软件定义网络(SDN)作为控制平面，支持通过对等数据路径进行消息路由；4)网络虚拟化，并与带有Docker Containers的虚拟化计算/存储端点集成，以允许现有互联网应用程序原封不动地工作。EdgeVPN自组织隧道的重叠拓扑，支持互联网中跨不同提供商连接的边缘设备之间的加密、身份验证通信，可能会受到防火墙和网络地址转换(NAT)施加的移动性和限制。它建立在标准SDN接口的基础上，为支持无处不在的以太网和IP层协议的虚拟化实现数据包操作原语。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.