Performance Evaluation of Kubernetes Distributions (K8s, K3s, KubeEdge) in an Adaptive and Federated Cloud Infrastructure for Disadvantaged Tactical Networks

The tactical edge domain, primarily consisting of dismounted soldiers and vehicles on the move, are typically interconnected via wireless tactical networks that are limited in terms of bandwidth, reachability, reliability, and latency. Hence, nodes in the tactical network cannot simply rely on assured access to enterprise cloud computing. Instead, they must explore other alternative models to leverage resources that are in situ, by means of a federated cloud architecture that spans the three tiers of dismounted soldiers, vehicles on the move, and operations centers. The NATO IST-168 RTG has been exploring approaches to best exploit available resources in such a federated architecture while living within the constraints of the tactical networks. The first approach has been to evaluate Kubernetes technologies to see if they are able to be deployed over tactical networks and provide the capabilities to dynamically distribute data and computing tasks over a federated cloud infrastructure composed of multiple partner nation networks. This paper provides initial performance results for various Kubernetes distributions (K8s, K3s, KubeEdge) in federated and adaptive tactical networks, leading to recommendations for further development and experimentation.