Improving Resource Utilization of a Cloud-Based Testing Platform for Android Applications

The Cloud Testing Platform (CTP) is a cloud-based system for testing Android applications (apps). It can be used to test whether an Android app can provide consistent user experiences on diverse devices developed by different manufacturers with customized specifications and operating system versions. The CTP employs virtual machines (VMs) to interact with various mobile devices currently for performing tests. However, improper size of VM pool and unbalanced loads on devices can result in low resource utilization or increase the response time of tests. To manage the resources of CTP more effectively, this paper presents a resource adaptation strategy that can adjust the number of VMs dynamically based on the workload of CTP and the number of available devices and can balance the loads across multiple devices of the same type to improve their usages and the average waiting time of tests. Experimental results indicate that the proposed strategy can be promising on improving the resource utilization of CTP.