Serving at the Edge: A Scalable IoT Architecture Based on Transparent Computing

TLDR

Edge computing shifts service provisioning from the cloud to the edge to meet IoT delay, scalability, energy, contextual processing, and backbone traffic reduction needs, yet remains nascent with many implementation and standardization challenges. The study investigates how transparent computing can be used to implement scalable IoT platforms at the edge. The authors propose a transparent computing–based IoT architecture, outline its advantages and challenges, and demonstrate its application in building scalable lightweight wearables through a case study. The paper highlights future research directions to advance the field.

Abstract

By moving service provisioning from the cloud to the edge, edge computing becomes a promising solution in the era of IoT to meet the delay requirements of IoT applications, enhance the scalability and energy efficiency of lightweight IoT devices, provide contextual information processing, and mitigate the traffic burdens of the backbone network. However, as an emerging field of study, edge computing is still in its infancy and faces many challenges in its implementation and standardization. In this article, we study an implementation of edge computing, which exploits transparent computing to build scalable IoT platforms. Specifically, we first propose a transparent computing based IoT architecture, and clearly identify its advantages and associated challenges. Then, we present a case study to clearly show how to build scalable lightweight wearables with the proposed architecture. Some future directions are finally pointed out to foster continued research efforts.