A simple protocol to automate the executing, scaling, and reconfiguration of Cloud-Native Apps

Abstract

We propose a simple protocol for Service Mesh management. The protocol specification consists of the formats of messages, and the actions taken by senders and recipients. The idea is that microservices of Cloud-Native Application should be also involved in configurations of their communication sessions. It does not interfere with the business logic of the microservices and requires only minor and generic modifications of the microservices codebase, limited only to network connections. Thus, sidecars are no longer needed, which is in line with the current trends, e.g. Cilium Service Mesh. This article presents the full formal specification of the proposed protocol SSMMP/v1.1.