Cloud-to-Edge Computing: A Unified Computational Paradigm

云到边缘计算：统一计算范式

• 批准号: RGPIN-2019-06120
• 负责人: GasconSamson, Julien
• 金额: $ 1.68万
• 依托单位: École de technologie supérieure
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=715938
• 关键词: Cloud; Edge; Computing; Unified; Computational

The Internet of Things (IoT) involves large amounts of interconnected devices that produce and consume data. Over the last few years, the IoT has gained tremendous popularity both in academia and many industry sectors. IoT devices can be found in many contexts, such as smart homes and smart buildings, intelligent vehicles, medical devices, the industry 4.0, etc. Gartner has estimated that there will be over 20 billion IoT devices by the year 2020. Historically, IoT devices consisted mostly of simple sensors and actuators that relayed data to/from the cloud with little to no local processing. Nowadays, IoT devices are getting more and more powerful and connected, and are quickly evolving beyond their traditional role of low-level embedded devices to become similar to embedded computers. For instance, the popular Raspberry Pi Zero W device features a 1 GHz CPU, 512 MB of RAM, WiFi and Bluetooth support, for only 5 USD. As these devices become more powerful, they can run full operating systems (e.g., Linux) and applications written in high-level, programmer-friendly languages (e.g., Java, JavaScript, Python), which opens the door to running more complex and higher-level applications and services directly on these devices (i.e., edge computing). My proposed research aims at providing a comprehensive model and a unified paradigm that will allow developers to write large-scale distributed high-level edge applications in a unified and interoperable manner, and to dynamically deploy these applications and the services that they consume (e.g., data storage, communications, file systems) close to where the data is produced, and directly onto the IoT devices themselves. I believe that this can yield several benefits, and can help alleviating the limitations of a purely centralized (i.e., cloud) model, such as reducing bandwidth and infrastructure costs; reducing latency, which can have an impact on real-time data processing and decision making; and alleviating the dependence on a central point of failure. The proposed research has the potential to explore and provide novel solutions to multi-dimensional challenges in a bleeding-edge field of research (cloud-edge computing). Research outcomes are expected through the form of publications to top-tier systems conferences (e.g., ICDCS, SEC, Middleware), in addition to contributing to the training of several (7) graduate students, which will learn important research and leadership skills that will make them valuable in thriving academic and industry markets. Benefits to the Canadian industry are envisioned, given that several key players are well established in the IoT landscape and in the telecom industry (e.g., Bell, Telus, Cisco, Intel), as well as benefits to Canada itself; e.g., a distributed deployment of applications and services could be beneficial in geographically dispersed communities and remote sites, and could ensure that sensitive data is processed locally, directly on trusted devices.

物联网 (IoT) 涉及大量生成和消费数据的互连设备。在过去的几年里，物联网在学术界和许多工业领域都获得了极大的普及。物联网设备广泛应用于智能家居、智能建筑、智能汽车、医疗设备、工业4.0等领域。Gartner预计，到2020年，物联网设备数量将超过200亿台。 从历史上看，物联网设备主要由简单的传感器和执行器组成，它们将数据转发到云端或从云端转发数据，几乎不需要本地处理。如今，物联网设备变得越来越强大和互联，并迅速超越其低级嵌入式设备的传统角色，变得类似于嵌入式计算机。例如，流行的 Raspberry Pi Zero W 设备配备 1 GHz CPU、512 MB RAM、WiFi 和蓝牙支持，价格仅为 5 美元。随着这些设备变得更加强大，它们可以运行完整的操作系统（例如 Linux）和用高级、程序员友好的语言（例如 Java、JavaScript、Python）编写的应用程序，这为运行更复杂和更高的设备打开了大门。直接在这些设备上的应用程序和服务（即边缘计算）。 我提出的研究旨在提供一个全面的模型和统一的范式，使开发人员能够以统一和可互操作的方式编写大规模分布式高级边缘应用程序，并动态部署这些应用程序及其使用的服务（例如，数据存储、通信、文件系统）靠近数据生成位置，并直接存储到物联网设备本身。我相信这可以带来很多好处，并且可以帮助减轻纯粹集中式（即云）模型的局限性，例如减少带宽和基础设施成本；减少延迟，这会对实时数据处理和决策产生影响；并减轻对中心故障点的依赖。 拟议的研究有潜力探索并为前沿研究领域（云边缘计算）的多维挑战提供新颖的解决方案。研究成果预计将以出版物的形式发布到顶级系统会议（例如 ICDCS、SEC、中间件），此外还将为几 (7) 名研究生的培训做出贡献，这些研究生将学习重要的研究和领导技能，使它们在蓬勃发展的学术和行业市场中有价值。鉴于在物联网领域和电信行业中已经确立了一些关键参与者（例如贝尔、Telus、思科、英特尔），预计加拿大行业将受益，并且加拿大本身也将受益；例如，应用程序和服务的分布式部署对于地理上分散的社区和远程站点可能是有益的，并且可以确保敏感数据直接在受信任的设备上进行本地处理。