A Multi-Domain Survey on Time-Criticality in Cloud Computing

Conventional cloud services and infrastructures are mainly designed to maximize utilization of resources and provide best-effort Quality-of-Service levels. However, many emerging use cases in both public and private cloud computing scenarios are time-critical in nature. For example, automated vehicles, smart cities, and automated factories, are all application domains characterized by the need for highly reliable and consistent low-latency services. The incorporation of predictable execution properties in cloud solutions is essential to meet these requirements. This paper provides an overview of the current research landscape in cloud computing, summarizing the key aspects to enable support of time-critical applications. The paper explores various levels of the typical cloud software stack: machine virtualization and containers, resource management and orchestration, fault tolerance, serverless computing, data storage and management, and communications.