ReSync: Coordinated Live-Migration for Stateful Containers in Mobile Edge Computing

Abstract

To ensure continuous low-latency service in Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), edge applications must migrate statefully along the user’s mobility path. However, existing migration schemes fail to meet the strict Quality of Service (QoS) requirements of live-serving, time-sensitive MEC applications due to excessive downtime and lack of coordination with handover events. We propose ReSync, a coordinated migration approach for stateful containers. ReSync consists of (i) a migration scheme that minimizes downtime by enhancing C/R with a replay synchronization mechanism, and (ii) a handover coordinator that aligns migration with handover events. We implement and evaluate ReSync in mobility-driven migration experiments within a small-scale MEC testbed. Results show that ReSync achieves network-independent low downtime, reduced by up to 90% compared to the state-of-the-art scheme Pre-copy, while maintaining comparable total migration time. ReSync demonstrates strong potential to improve service continuity for time-sensitive MEC applications, offering a practical solution for stateful live-migration under dynamic network conditions.