Network-centric performance analysis of runtime application migration in mobile cloud computing

Mobile Cloud Computing alleviates the limitations of resource-constrained mobile devices by leveraging the cloud resources. Currently, software-level solutions, also known as computational offloading, migrate the cloud-based mobile applications at runtime to the cloud datacenter to optimize the application execution time. However, the application execution frameworks mainly focus on migrating the application without considering the various critical network-centric parameters, such as traffic load and mobility speed, in application migration decision. In this paper, we analyze the effect of network-centric parameters on the application migration process. The performance of the migration process is analyzed by simulating the migration process in OMNeT++. The effects of various parameters, such as number of users in a WLAN, size of a file containing the application and its running states, traffic load on the wireless access point, message length, number of hops to the cloud, and mobility speed, are studied on the application performance metrics such as application migration time and packet drop ratio. Our analysis shows that the application and its running states migration time is affected by the changes in the network conditions. Based on our research findings, we recommend application execution framework designers to incorporate the network-centric parameters along with other parameters in the decision process of the application migration.