Introducing k4.0s: a Model for Mixed-Criticality Container Orchestration in Industry 4.0

Time predictable edge cloud is seen as the answer for many arising needs in Industry 4.0 environments, since it is able to provide flexible, modular, and reconfigurable services with low latency and reduced costs. Orchestration systems are becoming the core component of clouds since they take decisions on the placement and lifecycle of software components. Current solutions start introducing real-time containers support for time predictability; however, these approaches lack of determinism as well as support for workloads requiring multiple levels of assurance/criticality. In this paper, we present k4.0s, an orchestration model for real-time and mixed-criticality environments, which includes timeliness, criticality and network requirements. The model leverages new abstractions for both node and jobs, e.g., node assurance, and requires novel monitoring strategies. We sketch an implementation of the proposal based on Kubernetes, and present an experimentation motivating the need for node assurance levels and adequate monitoring.