Lambda Hive : formal semantics of an edge computing model based on JavaScript

Abstract

Edge computing is a paradigm that appliesvirtualization technology that makes it easier to deploy and run a wider range of applications on the edge servers and take advantage of largely unused computational resources. This article describes the design andformalization of Hive, a distributed shared memory model that can be transparently integrated with JavaScript using a standard out of the box runtime.To define such model a formal definition of the JavaScript language was used and extended to includemodern capabilities and custom semantics. This extended model wasused to prove that the distributedshared memory can operate on top of existing and unmodified web browsers.The proposed model guarantees the eventual synchronization of data across all the system and providesthe possibility to have a stricter consistency using standard httpoperations. The technicalfeasibility of this proposal was empirically validated by aprototype that yields reasonably lowpropagation time and allows the distribution of preexisting JavaScript code without any majormodifications.Additionally, the comprehensive formalization of the Hive execution model allows developers to guarantee certain properties of the synchronization mechanism, such as efficientand no blocking.