Paper Info
Title
Unikernels: library operating systems for the cloud
Abstract
We present unikernels, a new approach to deploying cloud services via applications written in high-level source code. Unikernels are single-purpose appliances that are compile-time specialised into standalone kernels, and sealed against modification when deployed to a cloud platform. In return they offer significant reduction in image sizes, improved efficiency and security, and should reduce operational costs. Our Mirage prototype compiles OCaml code into unikernels that run on commodity clouds and offer an order of magnitude reduction in code size without significant performance penalty. The architecture combines static type-safety with a single address-space layout that can be made immutable via a hypervisor extension. Mirage contributes a suite of type-safe protocol libraries, and our results demonstrate that the hypervisor is a platform that overcomes the hardware compatibility issues that have made past library operating systems impractical to deploy in the real-world.
Year
DOI
Venue
2013
10.1145/2451116.2451167
Sigplan Notices
Keywords
Field
DocType
commodity cloud,cloud platform,magnitude reduction,significant performance penalty,library operating system,present unikernels,hypervisor extension,code size,high-level source code,ocaml code,deploying cloud service,functional programming,operating system,hypervisor
Unikernel,Functional programming,Suite,Storage hypervisor,Computer science,Source code,Microkernel,Hypervisor,Real-time computing,Operating system,Embedded system,Cloud computing
Conference
Volume
Issue
ISSN
41
1
0163-5964
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
133
5.51
34
Authors
9
Search Limit
100133
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Anil Madhavapeddy167452.83
Richard Mortier21421130.93
Charalampos Rotsos331421.95
David Scott443040.65
Balraj Singh51657.78
Thomas Gazagnaire621513.32
Steven Smith71335.51
Steven Hand85696488.18
Jon Crowcroft9120851252.50