Guest Editorial: In-Network Computing: Emerging Trends for the Edge-Cloud Continuum
Deze Zeng, Nirwan Ansari, Marie‐José Montpetit, Eve M. Schooler, Daniele Tarchi
Abstract
Recent advances in virtualization technologies (e.g., uniker-nels, containers, and virtual machines), the move to data driven approaches and softwarized networking technologies (e.g., SDN, NFV, and data plane programming) have invigorated a new focus on combining computation and communication in distributed systems. At the same time, the proliferation of edge computing, a complementary and at times alternative solution to centralized cloud computing, has resulted in an edge-cloud continuum of applications and services. Edge computing offers more proximate resources closer to where the service is needed and supports emerging applications (e.g., self-driving vehicles, autonomous systems, and VR/AR) with stringent requirements of fast response, low delay, high bandwidth, trust-sensitivity, and/or continued operation, despite intermittent or incomplete connectivity. These trends have converged into the concept of Computing in the Network (COIN), the integration of in-network computation and network processing in a common framework. COIN naturally fits within the edge-cloud continuum, where expanded resource distribution and tightly integrated computing-networking capabilities are provisioned from the edge to the cloud infrastructure including at points in between.