Volume 18, Number 2

QoS-Based Cost-effective Offloading as a Service Middleware for Mobile Cloud Applications

  Authors

Hamid Jadad¹ and Abderezak Touzene², ¹Dhofar University, Oman, ²Sultan Qaboos University, Oman

  Abstract

This paper proposes a distributed cloud middleware system that offers Offloading as a Service (OaaS) for mobile applications, aiming to satisfy user Quality of Service (QoS) requirements while reducing response time and overall cost. OaaS takes into consideration different features such as the user location (proximity to cloud resources); application requirements (e.g., OS, RAM, number of vCPUs); and desired QoS to offer an efficient offloading service that maximizes cloud resource utilization and reduces Virtual Machine (VM) rental costs. To ensure cost efficiency, OaaS dynamically selects VMs from various cloud providers based on pricing and adjusts the number of VMs in real-time to meet response time requirements. Using a predictive model based on queuing theory, the middleware can scale the VM pool up or down by forecasting workload demands. Simulation results confirm that our model outperforms existing algorithms in terms of response time and VM leasing costs, while meeting users’ QoS requirements.

  Keywords

Mobile cloud, apps, offloading service, load balancing, prediction model, and queuing model.