Paper ID: 2205.01423

Autonomy and Intelligence in the Computing Continuum: Challenges, Enablers, and Future Directions for Orchestration

Henna Kokkonen, Lauri Lovén, Naser Hossein Motlagh, Abhishek Kumar, Juha Partala, Tri Nguyen, Víctor Casamayor Pujol, Panos Kostakos, Teemu Leppänen, Alfonso González-Gil, Ester Sola, Iñigo Angulo, Madhusanka Liyanage, Mehdi Bennis, Sasu Tarkoma, Schahram Dustdar, Susanna Pirttikangas, Jukka Riekki

Future AI applications require performance, reliability and privacy that the existing, cloud-dependant system architectures cannot provide. In this article, we study orchestration in the device-edge-cloud continuum, and focus on edge AI for resource orchestration. We claim that to support the constantly growing requirements of intelligent applications in the device-edge-cloud computing continuum, resource orchestration needs to embrace edge AI and emphasize local autonomy and intelligence. To justify the claim, we provide a general definition for continuum orchestration, and look at how current and emerging orchestration paradigms are suitable for the computing continuum. We describe certain major emerging research themes that may affect future orchestration, and provide an early vision of an orchestration paradigm that embraces those research themes. Finally, we survey current key edge AI methods and look at how they may contribute into fulfilling the vision of future continuum orchestration.

Submitted: May 3, 2022