NAS: A Novel Network-Aware Kubernetes Scheduling Framework Using eBPF Service Mesh

Kubernetes has become the dominant platform for orchestrating containerized applications in modern cloud environments. However, its default scheduling mechanisms primarily focus on CPU and memory resources, overlooking network performance–a critical factor for latency-sensitive applications in domains like 5G and edge computing. This paper introduces NAS, a novel network-aware scheduling framework that integrates real-time network metrics such as latency and bandwidth using an eBPF-based Cilium service mesh. By incorporating these metrics into the scheduling process, NAS optimizes pod placement for performance-sensitive applications. Experimental results show that NAS reduces average latency by 52.66% compared to the default Kubernetes scheduler and 2.68% compared to Diktyo while minimizing maximum latency spikes by 85.61% and 7.23%, respectively. Further, NAS effectively distributes workloads and provides co-location benefits by considering microservices dependencies and network costs during pod placement.