Network-centric Performance Analysis of Runtime Application Migration in Mobile Cloud Computing Ejaz Ahmed a,* , Adnan Akhunzada a , Md Whaiduzzaman a , Abdullah Gani a , Siti Hafizah Ab Hamid a , Rajkumar Buyya b a Mobile Cloud Computing Lab, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. b Department of Computing and Information Systems, The University of Melbourne, Parkville Campus, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia. Abstract Mobile Cloud Computing alleviates the limitations of resource-constrained mobile devices by leveraging the cloud re- sources. Currently, software-level solutions, also known as computational offloading, migrate the cloud-based mobile applications at runtime to the cloud datacenter to optimize the application execution time. However, the application ex- ecution frameworks mainly focus on migrating the application without considering the various critical network-centric parameters, such as traffic load and mobility speed, in application migration decision. In this paper, we analyze the effect of network-centric parameters on the application migration process. The performance of the migration process is analyzed by simulating the migration process in OMNeT++. The effects of various parameters, such as number of users in a WLAN, size of a file containing the application and its running states, traffic load on the wireless access point, message length, number of hops to the cloud, and mobility speed, are studied on the application performance metrics such as application migration time and packet drop ratio. Our analysis shows that the application and its running states migration time is affected by the changes in the network conditions. Based on our research findings, we recommend application execution framework designers to incorporate the network-centric parameters along with other parameters in the decision process of the application migration. Keywords: Mobile Cloud Computing; Application Offloading/Migration; Seamless Application Execution; Performance Analysis; Cloud-based Mobile Application. 1. Introduction Recent developments in mobile and wireless technologies have changed the mobile user preferences that have given novel directions to application designers of distributed mobile computing. As a result, a number of rich mobile applications are emerging. Mobile users executing an application on a resource-constrained mobile device want to achieve an application performance similar to that when running the similar application on a stationary resource-rich system. However, in spite of all advancements in mobile device technologies, mobile devices always lagged in ap- plication performance (responsiveness) and resources (battery lifetime, memory capacity, and CPU speed) compared with their stationary counterparts [1]. Therefore, mobile applications are staggering to reduce the disparity in the execution performance. Likewise, node mobility [2, 3, 4], heterogeneity across wireless networks [5], and variable reliability [6] are some of the common factors that negatively affect the execution of mobile applications in mobile cloud computing (MCC). Currently, MCC has synergistically integrated mobile computing, wireless technologies, and the cloud to leverage the cloud potential for augmenting mobile resources [7, 8]. MCC facilitates the mobile user * Corresponding author Email addresses: ejazahmed@ieee.org (Ejaz Ahmed), a.adnan@siswa.um.edu.my (Adnan Akhunzada), wzaman110054@siswa.um.edu.my (Md Whaiduzzaman), abdullahgani@ieee.org (Abdullah Gani), sitihafizah@um.edu.my (Siti Hafizah Ab Hamid), raj@csse.unimelb.edu.au (Rajkumar Buyya) 1 This work is supported in part by the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education under the University of Malaya High Impact Research Grant (UM.C/HIR/MOHE/FCSIT/03) and by the Bright Spark Unit, University of Malaya, Malaysia. Preprint submitted to Elsevier July 17, 2014 Please cite this paper as follows: Ejaz Ahmed, Adnan Akhunzada, Md Whaiduzzaman, Abdullah Gani, Siti Hafizah Ab Hamid, Rajkumar Buyya, Network-centric performance analysis of runtime application migration in mobile cloud computing, Simulation Modeling Practice and Theory, in press, 2014.