Analysis of transformation capabilities between communication types of cloud application components

Abstract

The components of a cloud application and their relationships can be defined and modelled by standards such as the Topology and Orchestration Specification for Cloud Applications (TOSCA) language to minimise the deployment, management, and portability efforts. However, changing internal or external conditions leads to updates for the model. Sometimes the components running on the same host may split into different hosts. Recent studies on splitting the components into several hosts focus on the matching capabilities with available hosting offerings in the new environment, yet the required changes regarding the communication are not considered. After splitting topologies, the new environment may not support the previously established communication. In this case, the communication between the components must be updated and transformed. The splitting process should be aborted if a transformation is not possible. In this thesis, transformation capabilities between communication types of cloud application components are analysed. The communication protocols are first categorised according to characteristics. Next, the possibility of the transformation between those communication types and the challenges and limitations are researched. Finally, a prototype that detects whether the transformation is needed when the environment changes and offers decision support for redistributing the components is implemented.