CN112130960A

CN112130960A - Lightweight mobile edge computing node and construction method

Info

Publication number: CN112130960A
Application number: CN202011053201.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李蕾; 郭双拴
Original assignee: Lenovo Beijing Ltd
Current assignee: Lenovo Beijing Ltd
Priority date: 2020-09-29
Filing date: 2020-09-29
Publication date: 2020-12-25

Abstract

The embodiment of the application discloses a method for constructing a lightweight mobile edge computing node, which comprises the following steps: a container cluster, a virtual machine cluster, and a hybrid virtualization engine; the container cluster comprises at least one container, and the virtual machine cluster comprises at least one lightweight virtual machine; the method comprises the following steps: receiving, by a hybrid virtualization engine, a creation request requesting creation of a virtualized instance; the create request can indicate an instance type of the virtualized instance; determining, by the hybrid virtualization engine, that the virtualized instance comprises the container and/or the lightweight virtual machine according to the instance type indicated by the creation request; creating, by the hybrid virtualization engine, the container and/or the lightweight virtual machine. The embodiment of the application also discloses an MEC node.

Description

Lightweight mobile edge computing node and construction method

Technical Field

The present application relates to a mobile edge computing technology, and in particular, to a lightweight mobile edge computing node and a construction method thereof.

Background

The method comprises the steps that a Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) node effectively fuses the technologies of a wireless network and the Internet, functions of Computing, storing, processing and the like are added on the wireless network side, an open platform is constructed to implant Application, information interaction between the wireless network and a service server is opened through an Application Programming Interface (API), the wireless network and the service are fused, and a traditional wireless base station is upgraded to an intelligent base station. And the mobile edge computing can provide customized and differentiated services for the industry by facing service levels (Internet of things, video, medical treatment, retail and the like), so that the network utilization efficiency and the value-added value are improved. Deployment strategies (particularly geographic locations) with simultaneous mobile edge computing can achieve the advantages of low latency, high bandwidth. The MEC may also obtain wireless network information and more accurate location information in real time to provide more accurate services.

The mobile edge compute node hosts a number of different types of applications, some of which need to run on containers and some of which need to run on virtual machines. In the related technology, a container and a virtual machine are separately realized by a virtualization technology adopted by a mobile edge computing node, and the virtual machine and the container are respectively created on the mobile edge computing node, so that the resource utilization rate of the mobile edge computing node is low.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a lightweight mobile edge computing node and a construction method thereof, which can fuse a virtual machine and a container and improve the resource utilization rate of the mobile edge computing node.

In one aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for constructing a lightweight mobile edge computing node, where the lightweight mobile edge computing node includes: a container cluster, a virtual machine cluster, and a hybrid virtualization engine; the container cluster comprises at least one container, and the virtual machine cluster comprises at least one lightweight virtual machine; the method comprises the following steps:

receiving, by a hybrid virtualization engine, a creation request requesting creation of a virtualized instance; the create request can indicate an instance type of the virtualized instance;

determining, by the hybrid virtualization engine, that the virtualized instance comprises the container and/or the lightweight virtual machine according to the instance type indicated by the creation request;

creating, by the hybrid virtualization engine, the container and/or the lightweight virtual machine.

In one aspect, a lightweight mobile edge computing node provided in an embodiment of the present application includes:

a cluster of containers comprising at least one container;

a virtual machine cluster comprising at least one lightweight virtual machine;

a hybrid virtualization engine to receive a create request requesting creation of a virtualized instance; the create request can indicate an instance type of the virtualized instance;

the hybrid virtualization engine is further used for determining that the virtualized instance comprises a container and/or a lightweight virtual machine according to the instance type indicated by the creation request;

the hybrid virtualization engine is further used for creating a container and/or a lightweight virtual machine.

In one aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides an electronic device, where the electronic device includes a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, and the processor implements the steps of the method for constructing a lightweight mobile edge computing node when executing the computer program.

In one aspect, embodiments of the present application further provide a storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, where the computer program, when executed by a processor, implements the method for constructing a lightweight mobile edge computing node.

In an embodiment of the present application, a lightweight mobile edge computing node includes: a container cluster, a virtual machine cluster, and a hybrid virtualization engine; the container cluster comprises at least one container, and the virtual machine cluster comprises at least one lightweight virtual machine; the hybrid virtualization engine can create a container and a light-weight virtual machine corresponding to the instance type in the light-weight mobile edge computing node according to the instance type indicated by the received creation request, so that the virtualized hybrid engine simultaneously supports creation of the container and the light-weight virtual machine, the container and the light-weight virtual machine are fused, overall performance overhead is reduced to the maximum extent, and resource utilization rate is improved.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is an optional structural schematic diagram of an MEC node according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is an optional structural schematic diagram of an MEC node according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is an optional schematic flow chart of a method for constructing an MEC node according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 4 is an optional schematic flow chart of a method for constructing an MEC node according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 5 is an alternative structural schematic diagram of an MEC node according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is an optional schematic flow chart of a method for constructing an MEC node according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 7 is an alternative structural schematic diagram of an MEC node according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is an alternative structural diagram of an MEC node in the related art;

fig. 9 is an alternative structural schematic diagram of an MEC node according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of FIG. 8 in a different manner from FIG. 9;

fig. 11 is an optional schematic flow chart of a method for constructing an MEC node according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The present application will be described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and examples. It should be understood that the examples provided herein are merely illustrative of the present application and are not intended to limit the present application. In addition, the following examples are provided as partial examples for implementing the present application, not all examples for implementing the present application, and the technical solutions described in the examples of the present application may be implemented in any combination without conflict.

In various embodiments of the present application: the lightweight mobile edge computing node comprises: a container cluster, a virtual machine cluster, and a hybrid virtualization engine; the container cluster comprises at least one container, the virtual machine cluster comprises at least one lightweight virtual machine, and the hybrid virtualization engine receives a creation request requesting creation of a virtualized instance; the create request can indicate an instance type of the virtualized instance; the hybrid virtualization engine determines that the virtualized instance comprises a container and/or a lightweight virtual machine according to the instance type indicated by the creation request; the hybrid virtualization engine creates a container and/or lightweight virtual machine.

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of an MEC node provided in an embodiment of the present application, and as shown in fig. 1, the MEC node 100 includes: a container cluster 101, a virtual machine cluster 102, and a hybrid virtualization engine 103, wherein the container cluster comprises at least one container 1011 and the virtual machine cluster 102 comprises at least one lightweight virtual machine 1021.

The container is a complete operating system simulated by software, and is virtualization of the operating system. A light-weight Virtual Machine (VM) is a light-weight complete computer system with complete hardware system functionality, which is simulated by software and runs in a completely isolated environment. The container and lightweight virtual machines run on the MEC node as two different types of virtualized instances.

Hybrid virtualization engine 103 is multiplexed to both container and lightweight virtual machine types of virtualization instances, managing the container and lightweight virtual machines. With the hybrid virtualization engine 103, container and lightweight virtual machines can be run on the operating system of the MEC node.

Here, hybrid virtualization engine 103 is a virtualized executable program, which may be a binary file.

In the embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 2, a physical entity in which the MEC node 100 is located may be referred to as an MEC server 10, a container 1011 in the container cluster 101 and a light-weight virtual machine 1021 in the virtual machine cluster 102 run on an operating system of the MEC server 10 as independent computer systems by using the hybrid virtualization engine 103, respectively, and the MEC server 10 provides physical resources such as RAM, CPU, bandwidth, and the like for the container 1011 in the container cluster 101 and the light-weight virtual machine 1021 in the virtual machine cluster 102. Each container has an application (App) running thereon, and the applications on the containers think they are running on a separate operating system. Each light weight virtual machine runs an application program and an operating system, and the operating system on the light weight virtual machine considers itself to run on an independent MEC node. Apps running in different containers or lightweight virtual machines are isolated from each other.

In the embodiment of the present application, the hybrid virtualization engine 103 receives a creation request requesting to create a virtualization instance; the create request can indicate an instance type of the virtualized instance; hybrid virtualization engine 103 determines that the virtualized instance comprises a container and/or a lightweight virtual machine according to the instance type indicated by the creation request; the hybrid virtualization engine 103 creates a container and/or lightweight virtual machine, thereby completing the creation of the container and/or lightweight virtual machine in the MEC node.

The MEC node 100 receives a creation request requesting creation of a virtualized instance through the hybrid virtualization engine 103; the create request can indicate an instance type of the virtualized instance; determining, by hybrid virtualization engine 103, that the virtualized instance comprises container 1011 and/or lightweight virtual machine 1021 according to the instance type indicated by the creation request; through hybrid virtualization engine 103, container 1011 and/or lightweight virtual machine 1021 is created.

Based on the MEC nodes shown in fig. 1 and fig. 2, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for constructing an MEC node, where the method is applied to the MEC node, and each functional module in the MEC node may be cooperatively implemented by hardware resources of a computer device (such as a server or a server cluster), such as computing resources such as a processor, and communication resources (such as those used for supporting communications in various manners such as optical cables and cells).

Of course, the embodiment of the present application is not limited to being provided as a method and hardware, and may also be provided in various implementations, for example, as a storage medium (storing instructions for executing the method for constructing the MEC node provided in the embodiment of the present application).

An embodiment of the present application provides a method for constructing an MEC node, as shown in fig. 3, the method for constructing an MEC node includes:

s301, receiving a creation request for creating a virtualization instance through a hybrid virtualization engine;

the create request can indicate an instance type of the virtualized instance.

When a user has a need to create a virtualized instance, a creation request requesting to create the virtualized instance may be sent to the MEC node, where the creation request received by the MEC node can indicate an instance type of the virtualized instance to be created by the MEC node. In one example, instance types include: a first instance type characterizing the virtualized instance as a container, and a second instance type characterizing the virtualized instance as a lightweight virtual machine.

In the example of the present application, the manner in which the creation request indicates the example type may include at least one of the following manners:

indicating in a first indicating mode and indirectly;

and the indication mode II is direct indication.

When the mode of indicating the instance type by the creation request is indication mode one, the instance type can be determined by whether to carry an instance type identifier, or can be determined by the size of the field of the creation request. The embodiment of the present application does not set any limit to the specific manner of indirectly indicating the type of the example.

And under the condition that the mode of indicating the instance type by the creation request is the indication mode two, determining the instance type of the virtualized instance through the carried instance type identification. In an example, the instance type identifier is 1, the token instance type is a first instance type, the instance type identifier is 0, and the token instance type is a second instance type. The embodiment of the present application does not set any limit to the relationship between the value of the instance type identifier and the characterized instance type.

In practical application, the information processing network in which the MEC node is located includes a plurality of MEC nodes, and resources of all MEC nodes are managed by a resource manager of the information processing network. Here, a plurality of MEC nodes constitute one MEC node cluster, and the resource manager is a manager of the MEC node cluster.

The resource manager provides a user creation request capable of receiving a request sent by user equipment for creating a virtualized instance, generates a creation request sent to the MEC node based on the received user creation request, selects a target MEC node for creating the virtualized instance from the MEC nodes, and sends the creation request to the selected target MEC node.

The resource manager may be implemented as a logical unit on the same physical entity as the target MEC node or on a different physical entity from the target MEC node. The resource manager is implemented on the same physical entity as the target MEC node, and the resource manager directly sends the creation request to the hybrid virtualization engine in the target MEC node. The resource manager is implemented on a different physical entity than the target MEC node, and the resource manager sends the creation request to a node proxy of the target MEC node, and the node proxy forwards the creation request to the hybrid virtualization engine.

The resource manager is provided with an API, and the user equipment can remotely call the API of the resource manager and send a user creation request to the resource manager by calling the API.

The resource manager includes a scheduler that selects a target MEC node from the plurality of MEC nodes according to a selection policy. In an example, the selection policy is to select an MEC node with the minimum resource occupancy rate as a target MEC node. In yet another example, the selection policy is to select an idle MEC node as a target MEC node. The selection strategy for the scheduler to select the target MEC node can be set according to actual requirements.

After receiving the user creation request, the resource manager judges whether the virtualized instance requested to be created by the user creation request is a container or a lightweight virtual machine, and generates a creation request capable of indicating the instance type of the virtualized instance according to the judgment result, so that the target MEC node is notified of the instance type of the virtualized instance to be created. Here, the information processing system separates the control and implementation of the creation of the virtualized instance, thereby centralizing the control to the maximum extent, so that the MEC node uses the resources to the virtualized instance to the maximum extent, thereby increasing the resource overhead of the MEC node.

S302, determining that the virtualized instance comprises the container and/or the light weight virtual machine according to the instance type indicated by the creation request through the hybrid virtualization engine;

and after receiving the creation request, the MEC node determines whether the virtual instance to be created is a container or a lightweight virtual machine. In an example, the instance type indicated by the create request is a first instance type, and the virtualized instance to be created includes a container. In an example, the instance type indicated by the creation request is the second instance type, and the virtualized instance to be created comprises a lightweight virtual machine. In yet another example, the instance type indicated by the creation request includes a first instance type and a second instance type, and the virtualized instance to be created includes the container and the lightweight virtual machine.

Here, the MEC node may receive multiple create requests, and different create requests may indicate that different virtualization instances are created. In an example, the MEC node receives a create request 1, the create request 1 indicating that a container is created. In an example, the MEC node receives a create request 2 and a create request 3, the create request 2 indicating to create the container, and the create request 3 indicating to create the lightweight virtual machine. In yet another example, the MEC node receives a create request 4, the create request 4 indicating to create a container and lightweight virtual machine.

In some embodiments, in the case that the manner in which the creation request indicates the instance type is the indication manner two, as shown in fig. 4, the implementation of S302 includes:

s3021, acquiring an instance type identifier carried by the creation request through the hybrid virtualization engine;

the instance type identification characterizes an instance type of the virtualized instance;

s3022, determining, by the hybrid virtualization engine, that the virtualized instance comprises a container and/or a lightweight virtual machine according to the instance type identifier.

Here, the creation request carries an instance type identifier directly indicating an instance type of the virtualized instance to be created, and the instance type of the virtualized instance to be created does not need to be judged according to a user creation request of a user, so that workload of the MEC node is reduced, control in the process of creating the virtualized instance is executed by the resource manager, the MEC node passively executes creation of the virtualized instance according to the indication of the resource manager, overhead of the MEC node is reduced, creation of the virtualized instance is accelerated, and creation efficiency of the virtualized instance is improved.

S303, creating the container and/or the light weight virtual machine through the hybrid virtualization engine.

When the container is created through the hybrid virtualization engine, the MEC node virtualizes the operating system through the hybrid virtualization engine, and the virtualized operating system serves as the created container.

When the light-weight virtual machine is created through the hybrid virtualization engine, the MEC node virtualizes the hardware resources and the operating system of the MEC server through the hybrid virtualization engine to obtain virtualized hardware resources and a virtualized operating system, and the obtained virtualized hardware resources and the virtualized operating system are used as the hardware resources and the operating system of the light-weight virtual machine. Wherein, the hardware resources include: hard disk, memory, CPU, etc., so that the virtual machine can handle the user's request like a physical machine.

Upon completion of the creation of the virtualized instance, the virtualized instance may be launched and the application may be run on the virtualized instance. Wherein different applications may be run on different virtualized instances. It should be noted that there is an application, part of which runs on the virtual machine and part of which runs on the container, and for the MEC node, the virtual machine and the different part included on the container can be regarded as different applications, and the two parts can interact with each other, but for the user, there is only one application in the MEC node.

In some embodiments, based on the MEC node shown in fig. 1, the structure of the MEC node may be as shown in fig. 5, further including: the hardware stack resources 104, the container cluster 101, and the virtual machine cluster 102 share the hardware stack resources 104. Here, the hardware stack resources 104 are abstractions made by CPUs, storage, network adapters, and the like to the underlying hardware infrastructure, and the hardware stack resources 104 provide a computing platform for container clusters and virtual machine clusters.

Based on the MEC node shown in fig. 5, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for constructing an MEC node, where the method is applied to the MEC node, and each functional module in the MEC node may be cooperatively implemented by hardware resources of a computer device (such as a server or a server cluster), such as computing resources such as a processor and communication resources (such as those used for supporting communications in various manners such as optical cables and cells).

Fig. 6 is a schematic implementation flow diagram of a method for constructing an MEC node according to an embodiment of the present application, and as shown in fig. 6, before S303, the method further includes:

s304, obtaining configuration information through the hybrid virtualization engine;

the MEC node receives configuration information sent by the resource manager, and the configuration information may include: the location of the memory, the size of the CPU, the type of network adapter, etc., indicate the data of the hardware stack resources needed to create the virtualized instance.

Here, the configuration information may be carried in the creation request and transmitted to the MEC node by the resource manager, or the configuration information may be transmitted to the MEC node by the resource manager alone.

The resource manager stores information of hardware stack resources, including: the total size of hardware stack resources, the size of currently used hardware stack resources, the positions of the hardware stack resources of the currently created virtualization instances, the size of occupied hardware stack resources, and the like. And the resource manager allocates resources for the to-be-created virtualization instance according to the stored information of the hardware stack resources and the metadata carried by the received user creation request, and sends configuration information corresponding to the allocated resources to the MEC node. The metadata includes: the size of the memory of the request for creating the instance, the size of the CPU, the type of the network adapter and other hardware stack resources.

Here, the resource manager includes a container resource controller and a virtual machine resource controller, when the virtualization instance to be created is a container, a user creation request is sent to the container resource controller, and the container resource controller allocates hardware stack resources to the container according to the resource occupation condition; and when the virtual instance to be created is a lightweight virtual machine, sending a user creation request to the virtual machine resource controller, and allocating hardware stack resources to the virtual machine by the virtual machine resource controller according to the resource occupation condition.

S305, applying for resources from the hardware stack resources through the hybrid virtualization engine based on the configuration information;

and after receiving the configuration information, the MEC node applies a target hardware stack resource for creating a virtualization instance to the hardware stack resource of the MEC node through the hybrid virtualization engine according to the configuration information.

Accordingly, the execution of S303 includes: s3031, creating the container and/or the light weight virtual machine based on applied resources through the hybrid virtualization engine.

And the MEC node distributes the applied target hardware stack resource to the current virtualization instance to be created through the hybrid virtualization engine. And when the virtualization instance to be created comprises the container, allocating the applied target hardware stack resource to the current container. And when the virtualization instance to be created comprises the light-weight virtual machine, virtualizing the applied target hardware stack resource, and allocating the virtualized target hardware stack resource to the current light-weight virtual machine.

In some embodiments, based on the MEC node shown in fig. 1, the container cluster 101 includes at least one secure container 1011-1, and the MEC node may be configured as shown in fig. 7, further including: the virtual sandbox environment 105 running the secure container 1011-1. In the embodiment of the present application, a container running in a virtual sandbox environment is referred to as a secure container, and through the virtual sandbox environment, the behavior of an application running on the secure container can be restricted. A plurality of security containers can be operated in the virtual sandbox environment, different security containers have different microkernels, and information sharing does not exist.

It should be noted that, in the structure shown in fig. 7, some containers in the container set are operated in the virtual sandbox environment, and containers other than the secure container are operated in the virtual sandbox environment, in practical applications, all containers in the container set may be operated in the virtual sandbox environment, that is, all containers in the container set are secure containers.

Based on the MEC node shown in fig. 7, the implementation of S303 includes:

s3032, creating the safety container in a virtual sandbox environment through the hybrid virtualization engine; wherein at least one secure container is run in the virtual sandbox environment.

In the embodiment of the present application, whether a container runs in a virtual sandbox environment as a secure container may be determined according to an application running on the container. When the application running on a container includes an untrusted application, the container is run in the virtual sandbox environment as a secure container, and when the application running on a container does not include an untrusted application, the container is run outside the virtual sandbox environment. In the embodiment of the application, the security container comprising the untrusted application program is operated in the virtual sandbox environment, so that the behavior of the untrusted application program is limited, and the security of the container is ensured.

In an embodiment of the present application, in a case where at least two secure containers are run in the virtual sandbox environment, different secure containers have different microkernels.

A microkernel is an operating system kernel that can provide the necessary services; the necessary services include: tasks, threads, Inter-Process Communication (IPC), and memory management, among others. All services provided by the microkernel are only run in the address space of the microkernel, and the services are isolated and protected from each other.

Here, a security container uses a microkernel, so that the processing of the contexts of the security containers are isolated from each other and are not associated with each other, and the information between the security containers is ensured not to be associated.

In the embodiment of the present application, containers in the container set other than the secure container are referred to as non-secure containers, one non-secure container may use one microkernel, and different non-secure containers may also share one microkernel.

In the embodiment of the application, under the condition that each container in the container set uses one microkernel, the replacement of a safe container and a non-safe container can be performed, so that the compatibility of the safe container and the non-safe container can be realized, and the compatibility of the MEC node is improved while the diversified requirements of users are met.

In an embodiment, in the method for constructing an MEC node provided in the embodiment of the present application, after the creating of the lightweight virtual machine is completed, the method further includes:

s11, receiving a virtual machine starting instruction through the hybrid virtualization engine;

the MEC node can receive a virtual machine starting instruction sent by the resource manager. Here, the user may remotely call an API interface of the resource manager through the user equipment, issue a virtual machine start request for starting the lightweight virtual machine to the resource manager based on the remotely called API interface, and the resource manager generates a virtual machine start instruction based on the virtual machine start request.

In practical application, a virtual machine identifier for identifying the lightweight virtual machine is carried in a virtual machine starting instruction; the virtual machine starting request does not carry a virtual machine identifier, but carries indication information such as application program information and the like which can indirectly indicate the lightweight virtual machine, the resource manager determines the virtual machine identifier according to the indication information carried in the virtual machine starting request, and generates a virtual machine starting instruction based on the virtual machine identifier.

And S12, acquiring a basic component from a memory of a bottom layer server through the hybrid virtualization engine based on the virtual machine starting instruction, and loading the special component of the light weight virtual machine.

In the starting process of the lightweight virtual machine, the MEC node executes the steps of power-on self-test, kernel (kernel) starting, user process starting, component starting and the like. When starting the components, different processes are executed according to different components, a base component shared by a plurality of light-weight virtual machines is directly acquired from a memory, and an executable code corresponding to a special component unique to the light-weight virtual machine is loaded to obtain the special component. In one example, a base component includes: and a component shared by a plurality of light-weight virtual machines, such as a login component and an exit component.

In this embodiment of the application, the timing of preloading the base component may be before creating the first lightweight virtual machine, or may be in the process of starting the first lightweight virtual machine corresponding to the base component, and load a code corresponding to the base component, and store the loaded base component in the memory of the bottom server. Here, the memory of the underlying server is part of the infrastructure of the MEC server.

The MEC node loads the basic component in the memory of the bottom-layer server in advance, and during the process of starting the virtual machine, the basic component is not required to be recorded again, and the preloaded basic component is directly obtained from the memory, so that the starting process of the light-weight virtual machine is simplified, and the starting process of the virtual machine is light.

An embodiment of the present application further provides an MEC node, as shown in fig. 1, including:

a container cluster 101 comprising at least one container 1011;

a virtual machine cluster 102 comprising at least one lightweight virtual machine 1021;

a hybrid virtualization engine 103 for receiving a creation request requesting creation of a virtualized instance; the create request can indicate an instance type of the virtualized instance;

the hybrid virtualization engine 103 is further configured to determine, according to the instance type indicated by the creation request, that the virtualized instance includes a container 1011 and/or a lightweight virtual machine 1021;

the hybrid virtualization engine 103 is further configured to create a container 1011 and/or a lightweight virtual machine 1021.

In an embodiment, as shown in fig. 5, the node further includes: the container cluster 101 and the virtual machine cluster 102 share hardware stack resources 104,

a hybrid virtualization engine 103, further configured to obtain configuration information;

a hardware stack resource 104 for providing a resource according to the configuration information;

the hybrid virtualization engine 103 is further configured to create a container 1011 and/or a lightweight virtual machine 1021 based on resources provided by the hardware stack resources.

In one embodiment, at least one security container 1011-1 is included in the container cluster 101, and the node further comprises: a virtual sandbox environment; a virtual sandbox environment 105 for operating at least one secure container 1011-1; different security containers have different microkernels.

In an embodiment, the lightweight virtual machine 1021 acquires a base component from a memory of an underlying server during a start-up process, and loads a dedicated component, where the dedicated component is a component other than the base component in components included in the lightweight virtual machine.

It is noted that the description of the apparatus embodiment, similar to the description of the method embodiment above, has similar advantageous effects as the method embodiment. For technical details not disclosed in the embodiments of the apparatus of the present application, reference is made to the description of the embodiments of the method of the present application for understanding.

The MEC node and the method for constructing the MEC node provided by the embodiment of the present application are further described below by specific examples.

In the related art, as shown in fig. 8, an interface of a node of an MEC includes: the virtual machine management System comprises a basic setting 801, hardware stack resources, namely a computing storage network stack 802-1 and a computing storage network stack 802-2, wherein a VM monitor 803 runs on the computing storage network stack 802-1, a virtual machine 804 runs on the VM monitor 803, the virtual machine 804 comprises an App8041 and a guest Operating System (OS) 8042, a container engine 805 runs on the computing storage network stack 802-2, a container 806 runs on the container engine 805, and the container 806 comprises an App 8061.

Thus, in the related art, the MEC section needs to carry a variety of different types of intelligent applications, some of which need to run on containers and some of which need to run on virtual machines. The container and the virtual machine are separately realized, two virtualization technologies respectively occupy a set of complete computing and storing network stack, the resource utilization rate is low, and mixed arrangement and management cannot be performed.

The structure of the MEC node provided in the embodiment of the present application is shown in fig. 9, and includes: the system comprises a basic device 901, a computing storage network stack 902, a hybrid virtualization engine 903 running on the computing storage network stack 902, a lightweight virtual machine 904 running on the hybrid virtualization engine 904 and a secure container 905, wherein the lightweight virtual machine 904 comprises an App9041 and a lightweight OS9042, and the secure container 905 comprises an App 9051.

The hybrid virtualization engine 903 is used for realizing support of multiple virtualization instances in a virtualization layer of the MEC node, and can simultaneously support two virtualization instances of a lightweight virtual machine and a security container, so that the two virtualization technologies are integrated, and a set of computing storage network stack is occupied. Here, the computing storage network stack mainly performs a layer of abstraction on the bottommost infrastructure, and the hybrid virtualization engine performs the overall virtualization of resources based on the abstraction layer of the computing storage network stack, so as to provide different virtualized resources for upper-layer applications.

In addition, the conventional virtual machine monitor boot virtual machine flow is divided into a plurality of steps, and each boot step needs to load various built-in modules, so that the virtual machine has long boot time, and occupies a large amount of physical resources such as a CPU, a memory, IO and the like during running. In the application, the starting process of the lightweight virtual machine is optimized, and unnecessary modules, namely special components, are loaded in the virtual machine creating process. Therefore, by optimizing the starting process of the lightweight virtual machine, the resource overhead of the virtual machine is reduced to the maximum extent, and the resource utilization rate is improved.

In the embodiment of the application, a part of untrusted container context is isolated in a container which uses an ultra-lightweight virtual machine and a cut kernel, namely a secure container, wherein the basis of the secure container is a micro kernel, namely a very light weight virtualization sandbox which is realized based on the cut kernel and a customized root file (rootfs) and is used for isolating the container context. The starting time and the resource occupation of the safety container have obvious disadvantages compared with the traditional container due to the light weight of the virtual machine, and the running expenditure of the container is reduced as much as possible on the premise of ensuring the safety and the compatibility.

Here, comparing fig. 8 and fig. 9, as shown in fig. 10, the MEC node shown in fig. 9 has the following improvements:

1. processing 1001, namely optimizing a starting process, is performed on the VM monitor 803, and a light VM monitor 1002, namely a light virtual machine engine (Lightweight Hypervisor) is realized;

2. constructing a virtualized sandbox for the microkernel and the rootfs based on the container engine 805 to implement a secure container engine 1003;

3. implementations of lightweight VM monitor 1002 and secure container engine 1003 are fused in hybrid virtualization engine 903, where hybrid virtualization engine 903 may be a binary file.

4. The final implementation starts the lightweight virtual machine 904 and the secure container 905 by the hybrid virtualization engine 903.

It should be noted that the containers shown in fig. 8 share the kernel of the MEC server, and each cluster in the container cluster shown in fig. 9 uses different microkernels, so that context isolation between different containers is ensured, and the containers are light.

The MEC node provided by the embodiment of the application integrates the support of virtual machines and containers to the virtualization instances through the hybrid virtualization architecture of the hybrid virtualization engine, meets the diversified requirements of physical equipment of the mobile edge computing node, maximally reduces the overhead of a virtualization layer, and improves the resource utilization rate. Aiming at the problem of container security, the virtualization layer also introduces a secure container, and by isolating part of untrusted container contexts in a container using a cut kernel, and benefiting from the light weight of a virtual machine, the starting time and the resource occupation of the secure container have obvious disadvantages compared with the traditional container, and the expenditure of a hybrid virtualization engine is reduced as much as possible on the premise of ensuring the security and the compatibility.

Therefore, the embodiment of the application provides a hybrid lightweight virtualization technology, which realizes deep fusion of a virtual machine and a container engine. The lightweight virtual machine and the safety container can be simultaneously created only by one virtualization executable program serving as a hybrid virtualization engine, meanwhile, the system virtualization overhead is smaller, and the starting time of the instance is shorter. Moreover, by the aid of the hybrid virtualization technology, the operation cost of the edge side is reduced, the requirements of intelligent application on different virtualization modes supported by the edge computing platform are met, and efficiency and performance are greatly improved.

As shown in fig. 11, the method for constructing an MEC node provided in the embodiment of the present application includes:

the user, based on the user device 110 remotely invoking the API server 1111 of the resource manager 111, sends a user create request to the resource manager 111 requesting the creation of a virtualized instance.

After receiving the user creation request, the API server 1111 issues the user creation request to the resource controller 1112, the resource controller 1112 obtains metadata carried in the user creation request, determines whether the virtualization instance to be created is a secure container or a lightweight virtual machine according to the obtained metadata, sends the metadata to the virtual machine resource controller 1114 or the container resource controller 1115 according to the determination result, performs metadata persistence, and stores the metadata in the database 1113. Wherein, when the virtual instance to be created is a secure container, the metadata is sent to the container resource controller 1115, and when the virtual instance to be created is a lightweight virtual machine, the metadata is sent to the virtual machine resource controller 1114. The virtual machine resource controller 1114 or the container resource controller 1115 determines configuration information of application hardware stack resources and an instance type identifier indicating an instance type, generates a creation request according to the instance type identifier and the configuration information, and sends the creation request to the scheduler 1116, and the scheduler 1116 determines the MEC node 112 for creating a virtualized instance according to the resource usage of each MEC node in a plurality of MEC nodes and sends the creation request to the MEC node 112.

After receiving the creation request, the node agent 1121 of the MEC node 112 sends the creation request to the hybrid virtualization engine 1122, and the hybrid virtualization engine 1122 determines whether the virtualized instance to be created is a lightweight virtual machine or a secure container according to the instance type identifier. If a lightweight virtual machine is created, new lightweight virtual machines 11231 are added in the virtual machine cluster 1123, where each lightweight virtual machine 11231 uses one kernel 11232, if a secure container is created, new secure containers 11242 are added in the container cluster 1124, where the secure containers 11242 run in the virtualized sandbox environment 11241 and each secure container 11242 uses one microkernel 11243.

In the process of creating a virtualized instance, the hybrid virtualization engine 1122 applies for computing a storage network stack resource according to the configuration information, and creates a virtualized instance based on the applied resource.

An embodiment of the present application provides an electronic device, fig. 12 is a schematic diagram of a composition structure of the electronic device in the embodiment of the present application, and as shown in fig. 12, the device 1200 includes: a processor 1201, at least one communication bus 1202, a user interface 1203, at least one external communication interface 1204 and a memory 1205. Wherein the communication bus 1202 is configured to enable connective communication between such components. The user interface 1203 may include an API interface, and the external communication interface 1204 may include a standard wired interface and a wireless interface, among others.

Wherein the processor 1201 is configured to execute a computer program stored in a memory to implement the steps of:

Accordingly, an embodiment of the present application further provides a storage medium, i.e., a computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, and the computer program, when executed by a processor, implements the steps of the method for constructing an MEC node described above.

The above description of the electronic device, storage system and computer-readable storage medium embodiments is similar to the description of the method embodiments above, with similar beneficial effects as the method embodiments. For technical details not disclosed in the embodiments of the electronic device, the storage system and the computer-readable storage medium of the present application, reference is made to the description of the embodiments of the method of the present application for understanding.

In the embodiment of the present application, if the method for constructing the MEC node is implemented in the form of a software functional module and is sold or used as an independent product, the method may also be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application may be essentially implemented or portions thereof contributing to the prior art may be embodied in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, and including several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute all or part of the methods described in the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes, such as a usb disk, a removable hard disk, a Read Only Memory (ROM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk. Thus, embodiments of the present application are not limited to any specific combination of hardware and software.

It should be appreciated that reference throughout this specification to "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present application. Thus, the appearances of the phrases "in one embodiment" or "in an embodiment" in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. It should be understood that, in the various embodiments of the present application, the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes do not mean the execution sequence, and the execution sequence of each process should be determined by its function and inherent logic, and should not constitute any limitation to the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application. The above-mentioned serial numbers of the embodiments of the present application are merely for description and do not represent the merits of the embodiments.

It should be noted that, in this document, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising an … …" does not exclude the presence of other like elements in a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the element.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. The above-described device embodiments are merely illustrative, for example, the division of the unit is only a logical functional division, and there may be other division ways in actual implementation, such as: multiple units or components may be combined, or may be integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not implemented. In addition, the coupling, direct coupling or communication connection between the components shown or discussed may be through some interfaces, and the indirect coupling or communication connection between the devices or units may be electrical, mechanical or other forms.

The units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units; can be located in one place or distributed on a plurality of network units; some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment.

In addition, all functional units in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may be separately regarded as one unit, or two or more units may be integrated into one unit; the integrated unit can be realized in a form of hardware, or in a form of hardware plus a software functional unit.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that: all or part of the steps for realizing the method embodiments can be completed by hardware related to program instructions, the program can be stored in a computer readable storage medium, and the program executes the steps comprising the method embodiments when executed; and the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media that can store program codes, such as a removable Memory device, a Read Only Memory (ROM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

Alternatively, the integrated units described above in the present application may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium if they are implemented in the form of software functional modules and sold or used as independent products. Based on such understanding, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application may be essentially implemented or portions thereof contributing to the prior art may be embodied in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, and including several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute all or part of the methods described in the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a removable storage device, a ROM, a magnetic or optical disk, or other various media that can store program code.

The above description is only for the specific embodiments of the present application, but the scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily conceive of the changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present application, and shall be covered by the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method of constructing a lightweight mobile edge computing node, the lightweight mobile edge computing node comprising: a container cluster, a virtual machine cluster, and a hybrid virtualization engine; the container cluster comprises at least one container, and the virtual machine cluster comprises at least one lightweight virtual machine; the method comprises the following steps:

2. The method of claim 1, the determining, by the hybrid virtualization engine, that the virtualized instance comprises the container and/or the light weight virtual machine according to the instance type indicated by the create request, comprising:

acquiring an instance type identifier carried by the creation request through the hybrid virtualization engine; the instance type identification characterizes an instance type of the virtualized instance;

determining, by the hybrid virtualization engine, that the virtualized instance includes the container and/or the lightweight virtual machine according to the instance type identification.

3. The method of claim 1, the container cluster and the virtual machine cluster sharing hardware stack resources; the method further comprises the following steps:

obtaining, by the hybrid virtualization engine, configuration information;

applying for resources from the hardware stack resources based on the configuration information by the hybrid virtualization engine;

correspondingly, the creating, by the virtualization engine, the container and/or the lightweight virtual machine includes:

creating, by the hybrid virtualization engine, the container and/or the lightweight virtual machine based on the applied resources.

4. The method of claim 1, the virtualized instance comprising a container and the container being a secure container, the creating, by the hybrid virtualization engine, the container comprising:

creating, by the hybrid virtualization engine, the secure container in a virtual sandbox environment; at least one secure container is run in the virtual sandbox environment.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein in the case of at least two secure containers running in the virtual sandbox environment, different secure containers have different microkernels.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the hybrid virtualization engine, a virtual machine start instruction;

based on the virtual machine starting instruction, acquiring a basic component from a memory of a bottom layer server through the hybrid virtualization engine, and loading a special component of the lightweight virtual machine; the dedicated component is a component other than the base component among components included in the lightweight virtual machine.

7. A lightweight mobile edge computing node, comprising:

a cluster of containers comprising at least one container;

a virtual machine cluster comprising at least one lightweight virtual machine;

8. The node of claim 7, further comprising: hardware stack resources shared by the container cluster and the virtual machine cluster,

the hybrid virtualization engine is further configured to obtain configuration information;

the hardware stack resource is used for providing resources according to the configuration information;

the hybrid virtualization engine is further used for creating a container and/or a light-weight virtual machine based on the resources provided by the hardware stack resources.

9. The node of claim 7, the container cluster including at least one secure container therein; the node further comprises: a virtual sandbox environment;

the virtual sandbox environment is used for operating the at least one safety container; different ones of the secure containers have different microkernels.

10. The node according to claim 7, wherein the node is a node,

the lightweight virtual machine acquires a basic component from a memory of a bottom layer server in a starting process, and loads a special component, wherein the special component is a component except the basic component in components included in the lightweight virtual machine.