Serverless Edge Computing: Vision and Challenges

TLDR

Serverless, originally a pay‑per‑use, highly scalable cloud paradigm, is now extending to edge computing and IoT, offering benefits such as reduced electricity usage, but adoption is limited by its cloud‑centric design and edge‑specific challenges. The study aims to evaluate both sides of Serverless in edge computing to illuminate its potential and limitations. The authors assess Serverless at the edge by analyzing its applicability and constraints through a comprehensive review of current platforms and edge characteristics. The analysis presents a broad vision for bringing Serverless to edge computing and identifies major challenges that must be addressed before its adoption.

Abstract

Born from a need for a pure "pay-per-use" model and highly scalable platform, the "Serverless" paradigm emerged and has the potential to become a dominant way of building cloud applications. Although it was originally designed for cloud environments, Serverless is finding its position in the Edge Computing landscape, aiming to bring computational resources closer to the data source. That is, Serverless is crossing cloud borders to assess its merits in Edge computing, whose principal partner will be the Internet of Things (IoT) applications. This move sounds promising as Serverless brings particular benefits such as eliminating always-on services causing high electricity usage, for instance. However, the community is still hesitant to uptake Serverless Edge Computing because of the cloud-driven design of current Serverless platforms, and distinctive characteristics of edge landscape and IoT applications. In this paper, we evaluate both sides to shed light on the Serverless new territory. Our in-depth analysis promotes a broad vision for bringing Serverless to the Edge Computing. It also issues major challenges for Serverless to be met before entering Edge computing.