Abstract
Edge computing brings computing and storage resources closer to (mobile) end users and data sources, thus bypassing expensive and slow links to distant cloud computing infrastructures. Often leveraged opportunistically, these heterogeneous resources can be used to offload data and computations, enabling upcoming demanding applications such as augmented reality and autonomous driving. Research in this direction has addressed various challenges, from architectural concerns to runtime optimizations. As of today, however, we lack a widespread availability of edge computing—partly because it remains unclear which of the promised benefits of edge computing are relevant for what types of applications. This article provides a comprehensive snapshot of the current edge computing landscape, with a focus on the application perspective. We outline the characteristics of edge computing and its postulated benefits and drawbacks. To understand the functional composition of applications, we first define common application components that are relevant w.r.t. edge computing. We then present a classification of proposed use cases and analyze them according to their expected benefits from edge computing and which components they use. Furthermore, we illustrate existing products and industry solutions that have recently surfaced and outline future research challenges.
Highlights
Edge computing has recently gained tremendous attention in both academia and industry
In this article, we have given a snapshot of the current state of edge computing
Our main contributions are a structured survey of proposed edge computing applications as well as a systematic analysis which benefits they can reap from edge computing and which basic components they have in common (Section IV-E)
Summary
Edge computing has recently gained tremendous attention in both academia and industry. Many works present a single use case to assess a specific problem that is related to edge computing (e.g., the placement of computing tasks), but only evaluate it with respect to a single criterion, e.g., latency or costs and disregard other aspects Overall it remains unclear which types of applications benefit from which particular. We survey potential use cases for edge computing, classify them into four general categories and analyze how well the benefits of edge computing support representative applications. Li et al [27] have surveyed the edge computing paradigm with a focus on the architecture and management issues They classify related work according to key design objectives; the authors do not provide an in-depth analysis regarding the benefits of edge computing for particular classes of applications.
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