Cyber-Physical Cloud Computing: The Binding and Migration Problem

We take the paradigm of cloud computing developed in the cyber-world and put it into the physical world to create a cyber-physical computing cloud. A server in this cloud moves in space making it a vehicle with physical constraints. Such vehicles also have sensors and actuators elevating mobile sensor networks from a deployment to a service. Possible hosts include cars, planes, people with smartphones, and emerging robots like unmanned aerial vehicles or drifters. We extend the notion of a virtual machine with a virtual speed and call it a virtual vehicle, which travels through space by being bound to real vehicles and by migrating from one real vehicle to another in a manner called cyber-mobility. We discuss some of the challenges and envisioned solutions, and describe our prototype implementation.