mF2C 5th Newsletter (Summer 2019)

Antonio Salis
Reading Time: 5 minutes

 

Welcome to the 5th Newsletter from the mF2C project. Developing a holistic Fog-to-Cloud management software stack, the project has entered its busiest phase. Read on to find out about IT-2 – the second iteration of the mF2C framework. The maturing of the three use-cases being used to trial the software in diverse, real-world scenarios is also described. We also summarise some of the recent and upcoming events and engagements of the mF2C consortium.

For complete information on mF2C, and previous editions of the newsletter, please see our website: https://www.mf2c-project.eu/.

 

Software Integration – the IT-2 Release

mF2C partners are now finalising the IT-2 Release of the mF2C software stack. This iteration of mF2C includes the latest versions of the following components:

  • dataClay: Object oriented model to manage the data in fog-to-cloud platforms and applications. It allows data management, of both management and application data, as regular objects in applications.
  • Service Orchestrator: Service execution environment that ensures the best conditions for each service execution. This service management framework allows the best service allocation and execution based on the available resources.
  • Telemetry Monitoring: An extensible, adaptable, telemetry-gathering and analytics framework for the fog infrastructure. It provides rich, dynamically configurable telemetry from across the fog, and can host the analytics needed to extract insights from the data.
  • Resource Manager: Novel framework for location and source agnostic management of resources in a fog-to-cloud scenario. It implements a strategy for discovering, identifying, characterizing, monitoring and managing related data sources.
  • COMPSs: Programming environment for the definition and parallel execution of applications in fog-to-cloud platforms. It allows mobile application execution and computation in parallel, distributing tasks among all available devices.
  • CIMI: Standalone micro service which eases the addition of new infrastructure resources in a secure manner. It provides a unique interface for customers and other agents to interact with each other.

Complete details of the architecture are documented in D2.7 mF2c Architecture available online, and all of our software is open-source and can be explored at https://github.com/mF2C.

Use Case Updates

Emergency Situation Management in Smart Cities

In this use case led by WorldSensing, a smart infrastructure monitoring and activation solution is being developed to automatically detect if an emergency has occurred, and respond appropriately. This use case includes asset tracking, the sensing and geolocation of emergency locations, and the determination and activation of an appropriate response. One scenario being investigated is a complex construction site, where a variety of sensors, hazards and response infrastructure are distributed across a large site.

Smart Boat Services

XLAB are helping develop a product for private boat owners and users in which the systems and status of the boat can be monitored and controlled…from onboard, nearby, or remotely. mF2C technologies are being introduced to automatically expand connectivity across nearby boats and marina infrastructure, and onwards to the cloud, depending on network availability. The integration of mF2C technology with product prototypes is currently underway.

Airport Terminal Smart Fog-Hub Services

Engineering is collaborating with the operators of the Cagliari Elmas Airport to develop a solution that can maximise efficiencies in the IoT and device rich environment at busy airport terminals. This use case includes the detection of the presence of people, the generation of suitable navigation tips, and personalised recommendations of potentially interesting shop and airport service offerings. mF2C is being leveraged to optimally orchestrate the workloads across the distributed terminal infrastructure.

In recent months the mF2C COMPSs application has been consolidated and android interfaces have been updated, the ML software module has been integrated, with the objective to start performance tests on the final Use Case architecture. A successful meeting with airport management on June 20th has resulted in additional requirements for a commercially-oriented version of the use case that we will try to incorporate in the final deployment. Our next meeting will design the deployment of physical infrastructure and cabling.

External Advisory Board

mF2C has an External Advisory Board designed to provide an independent, external perspective to the goals and priorities of the project. The board includes academic and industrial expertise with a global perspective:

  • Kate Keahey (Argonne National Lab / University of Chicago)
  • Amy Apon (Clemson University)
  • Shahrokh Daijavad (IBM Almaden Research Center)

 

On May 8th the EAB gathered and met the consortium face-to-face. They were presented with details of progress and plans on the technical, scientific, and business aspects of the project. The EAB then shared their insights and perspectives on our work highlighting particular areas of uniqueness and additional opportunities for us to consider.

Our sincere thanks to the EAB members for their availability and insightful contributions.

 

The Open Awards 2019

At the recent Open Awards ceremony, 2019, mF2C was delighted to have received the most public votes for most innovative platform/project. In the end the jury decided to award the first place to a commercial product rather than a research project.

Our congratulations to Apprender.sm, overall winners of the award..

 

 

EuroHPC Summit

Dr. Rosa Maria Badia from Barcelona Super Computing Center participated in the Plenary session at the EuroHPC Summit in Pozdam in May. She shared advancements in some of the technologies being developed as part of the mF2C project. More details are online.

 

Barcelona Summer Camp

The mF2C project held a Summer Camp in Barcelona 7-8 May 2019, organized by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and hosted by Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. The workshops were attended – and presented – by experts and executives involved in managing Cloud, Fog and IoT technologies and their deployments in Smart Cities, Smart Manufacturing, Smart Transportation. The workshops addressed the perspectives of users, service providers and technology researchers and developers. The open panel discussions were particularly engaging and insightful. More details are available on our website.

General Assembly Meeting in Barcelona

The mF2C project held its 7th general review meeting in Barcelona 5-6 Feb 2019, organized by ATOS and chaired by Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. The workshops was focused on the progression in the design of the mF2C agent for IT-2, and sharing on the integration plan. Some demos have been presented, the first regarding interaction of Kubernetes and Docker Swarm. The second with a Nuvlabox nano smart edge device, based on ARM and RaspberryPI, able to support the mF2C agent in the edge with a lightweight version. More details are available online.

Technical Blog Posts

mF2C partners regularly blog about topics that may be of interest to those working in the field of fog, edge and cloud computing and the management of this infrastructure. Our latest articles are all available online and include:

 

Coming soon: EuroPar Workshop

The mF2C Consortium is delighted to again host a workshop on managed Fog-to-Cloud infrastructure as part of the Euro-Par 2019 Conference being held in Göttingen August 26-30.

Complete details of the workshop are available at https://www.mf2c-project.eu/europar-2019-mf2c-workshop/ – we would be delighted to meet you there!

Keep up to date

The remaining six months of the project promise to be busy and productive. You can keep up to date by following us on our media channels: