Performance Issues in Cloud Computing for Cyber-physical Applications

A focus of the paper is on the performance of cloud computing servers in cyber-physical systems (CPS) applications that aggregate data over large spatial regions over long spans of time. Examples of such CPS applications include those that: sense and respond to change in the environment such as forest fires or mud slides, help utilities such as water management districts monitor water quality and flow, and traffic management systems. This paper evaluates the benefits of architectures based on Cloud computing systems for such CPS applications. We use earthquake detection as a concrete example for this application class. The focus of the paper is on the performance of Platform-as-a-Service systems. The paper described the relative advantages of different types of services in the next few sections.