Communication Patterns of Cloud Computing

This paper surveys the literature to reveal the communication patterns associated with cloud computing. The literature includes a number of studies that although are not specific to cloud computing do provide insight into one class of communication for cloud computing: the communication between cloud clients (CCs) and cloud service provider (CSP) facilities. In addition, a few studies focus on the communication patterns within and among CSP facilities (i.e., data centers). Using this information, we: (1) develop a taxonomy of cloud computing communication, which includes client-CSP, intra- CSP, and inter-CSP facility communication; (2) discuss the communication patterns representative of the various categories in the taxonomy and communication techniques to accommodate those patterns; and (3) provide a road-map for future traffic studies. This paper makes it clear that there is much work that is required to attain a full understanding of the potentially unique nature of the communication patterns associated with cloud computing applications.