Zero-Interference Containers: A Framework to Orchestrate Mixed-Criticality Applications

Containers and microVMs are ubiquitous solutions to virtualize components and foster flexible and elastic edge/cloud settings. However, they can suffer from timing and failure interferences, jeopardizing the adoption in mixed-criticality systems.This paper presents a framework for zero-interference containers (ZICs), i.e., applications running in an isolated partition handled by a partitioning hypervisor but managed as containers. The framework includes: i) a container runtime for ZICs; ii) an image manager that automates the creation and seamlessly downloads ZIC images; iii) a tool to build replicable environments based on partitioning hypervisors. The container runtime allows integrating software components with strict real-time and dependability requirements into orchestration platforms (e.g., Kubernetes), fostering novel industrial use cases. The building tool and image manager facilitate ZICs development and testing through replicable environments and transparent image management. Experimental results show that ZICs survive a management VM crash and can guarantee timeliness despite heavy co-located stresses.