The Glasgow Raspberry Pi Cloud: A Scale Model for Cloud Computing Infrastructures By: Mugasa Hatwib

Cloud Data Center Most research in Data Centers using Cloud computing is by uses Development Environments with a handful of machines. However this is very expensive for most research and educational institutions considering the data center space, power, cooling, etc.

Google Cloud Data Center Google Data Center Cooling system at Google Credit :

Cloud DC Simulator Are a low cost alternative to the development environments. However some essential Cloud Computing properties that these simulators have failed to capture, e.g. Traffic patterns, cross layer correlation between application and network. Cloud simulation tools also require physical Cloud Dev environments running on x86 processors which are very expensive.

PiCloud : A scaled Cloud DC model The low-power, low-cost Raspberry Pi provides an affordable option to construct a miniature Cloud Data Center. It also allows for the reproduction of actual traffic patterns with realistic cloud applications.

System Design 56 x Raspberry Pi Model B 512MB RAM ARM MHz processor 1 Ethernet Port 10/100 16GB Sandisk SD card storage Credit :

System Design Credit :

System Design Built using 56 Model B version Raspberry Pi devices housed in a rack constructed from Lego bricks Devices in the same rack are connected to the same Top Of rack switch

System Architectural Design Credit :

System Virtualization Linux LXC Containers were used for virtualization API daemon on each Pi providing a RESTful management interface A webserver on the pimaster was used to provide a web-based control panel for users and administrators. The website is used to control workloads using RESTful interfaces through the interaction with API daemons

System Virtualization Credit :

Conclusion Possible to experiment with new algorithms for Virtual Machine (VM) management at low cost. Directly observing resulting behaviors on all layers of the Cloud architecture unlike with simulators. Observations on the interaction and effects of specific optimizations on the cloud configurations can be made at all system layers.

Conclusion Can be used to investigate ways of reducing network congestion through improved resource allocation, Can be used to look at novel network architectures and technologies that require significant changes to the infrastructure. A future development in the Cloud computing is the adjustment or removal of virtualization techniques.

References [1] Fung P.T., White D.R., Jouet S., Singer J., Pezaros D.P., "The Glasgow Raspberry Pi Cloud: A Scale Model for Cloud Computing Infrastructures," icdcsw, pp , 2013 IEEE 33rd International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems Workshops (ICDCSW), 2013 [2] A. Greenberg, J. Hamilton, D. A. Maltz, and P. Patel, “The cost of a cloud: Research problems in data center networks,” ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review, vol. 39, no. 1, January [3] “Raspbian.” [Online]. Available: (4/29/2014) [4] “Raspberry pi.” [Online]. Available: (4/29/2014)