Microservice Relocation for Communication Overhead Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Microservices in cloud environments face significant processing overhead due to marshalling, unmarshalling, and encryption processes in HTTP REST calls, leading to inefficient communication and resource utilization.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that monitor traffic between microservices to determine properties such as data volume and flow rate, then relocate microservices from separate origin resources to shared resources, optimizing communication by reducing the need for encryption and marshalling/unmarshalling processes, and reconfiguring communication methods to inter-process or direct function calls.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If microservices communicate via HTTP REST calls with marshalling and encryption, then communication security and data format compatibility are ensured, but processing overhead and computation time increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple microservices into shared containers or pods, allowing them to communicate through inter-process communication (IPC) mechanisms rather than network-based HTTP REST calls. This consolidation eliminates the need for marshalling, unmarshalling, and encryption/decryption operations, reducing processing overhead while maintaining security through isolated container environments.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary layer (service mesh or API gateway) that handles encryption and marshalling operations centrally rather than at each microservice endpoint. This mediator approach consolidates overhead operations and enables optimization of communication paths between services.
2Loss of energy
If microservices are deployed on separate nodes with node affinity, then network traffic is minimized, but the overhead of marshalling and unmarshalling data to/from HTTP messages remains
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple microservices into the same container or pod infrastructure, enabling direct inter-process communication that bypasses HTTP message marshalling entirely. This approach eliminates the persistent overhead of data format conversion while maintaining efficient local communication within the shared runtime environment.
3Reliability
If HTTPS encryption is applied to all microservice communication, then security requirements are met, but processing overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different communication quality levels based on service proximity and trust relationships. Services within the same container or pod utilize unencrypted inter-process communication for maximum efficiency, while services across different containers maintain HTTPS encryption. This differentiated approach optimizes productivity for trusted local communications while preserving security compliance for broader network communication.
Solution Approach 2:
By merging microservices into shared containers with isolated environments, the patent creates a trusted execution context that reduces or eliminates the need for HTTPS encryption overhead. The containerization provides inherent security boundaries, allowing efficient unencrypted communication within the merged service group while maintaining overall system security.
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments of the present invention provide methods, computer program products, and systems. One example comprises monitoring traffic between a plurality of microservices to determine a property of the traffic. Embodiments of the present invention can then, based on the determined property of the monitored traffic, relocate each of the plurality of microservices from its respective origin resource to a shared resource.