ISSN: 0974-6471, Vol. 12, No. (2) 2019, Pg.

34-38

Oriental Journal of Computer Science and Technology

www.computerscijournal.org

An Edge Computing Tutorial

INÉS SITTÓN-CANDANEDO1* and JUAN MANUEL CORCHADO1,2,3,4

BISITE Research Group, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain.

1

2
Air Institute, IoT Digital Innovation Hub, Salamanca, Spain.
3
Department of Electronics, Information and Communication, Faculty of Engineering,
Osaka Institute of Technology, Osaka, Japan.
4
Pusat Komputeran dan Informatik, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Kelantan, Malaysian.

Abstract
Edge Computing (EC) is an emerging technology that has made it
possible to process the large volume of data generated by devices Article History
connected to the Internet, through the Internet of objects (IO). The
article provides an introduction to EC and its definition. The integration Received: 03 May 2019
Accepted: 22 May 2019
of EC in those contexts would imply an optimisation of the processes
that are normally executed in a cloud computing environment, bringing Keywords
considerable advantages. The main contribution of EC is a better pre-
processing of the data collected through devices, before they are sent Cloud Computing;
Edge Computing (EC);
to a central server or the cloud. Industry 4.0;
Internet of Things;
Reference Architecture.

Edge Computing logistic, home, city, Industry 4.0 or finance-realted

The Internet of Things is a network or an interconn- challenges.1-3
ection of devices, sensors, or actuators that share
information through a unified protocol. The devices Until very recently, cloud computing was considered
use ubiquitous sensing, data analysis, information the traditional approach to meeting the requirements
representation and the same framework to achieve of the Internet of Things.1,4 Cloud computing is
this. A standard IoT network consists mainly of radio defined as a model that allows for ubiquitous,
frequency identification devices (RFID) and Wireless convenient, on-demand access to a shared set of
Sensor Networks (WSN). This type of IoT network configuration computing resources (e.g., networks,
have an important number of challenges that are servers, storage, applications and services) that can
difficult to overcome in smart scenarios, such as: be quickly provisioned and released with minimal

CONTACT Inés Sittón-Candanedo [email protected] BISITE Research Group, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain.

© 2019 The Author(s). Published by Oriental Scientific Publishing Company

This is an Open Access article licensed under a Creative Commons license: Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY).
Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13005/ojcst12.02.02
 SITTÓN-CANDANEDO & CORCHADO, Orient. J. Comp. Sci. & Technol., Vol. 12(2) 34-38 (2019) 35

interaction between the management center and its architecture, challenges, software technologies,
the service provider. 5,6 The approach of using benefits and capabilities. 9-11 Some of the most
cloud computing as a centralized server, generally commonly used edge computing concepts are
geographically distant, increases the frequency of presented as follow:
communications between the peripheral devices
used by users (tablets, computers, wristbands or • Edge Computing is a technology that allows to
smartphones) becoming a limitation for applications perform computation at the network edge so
that require a real-time response. that computing happens near data sources.
In Edge Computing, the end device not only
This challenge has given rise to Edge Computing consumes data but also produces data.12
(EC) as an emerging technology that allows • Edge Computing is a new paradigm in
applications to run on network nodes.7 In EC, the which substantial computing and storage
nodes can be centralized, distributed (core) or at the resources, also referred to as cloudlets, micro
end of the network, in this last case they are called datacentres or fog nodes, are placed at the
"edges", allowing for a more distributed processing Internet’s edge in close proximity of mobile
of all the information generated by the peripheral devices or sensors.13
devices. The widespread interest in this technology is • Edge computing, refers to the enabling
due to its association with the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies that allow for computation to
and its disruption in diferent scenarios, as a result be performed at the network edge so that
of the number of devices that can be connected computing happens near data sources. It
to the Internet, generating data and requiring works on both downstream data on behalf of
organizations to improve their productivity through cloud services and upstream data on behalf
the administration and analysis of these data.8 of IoT services.14

Consequently, lines of research have emerged to In authors opinion, the most precise definition of
address edge computing, its challenges, oportunities Edge Computing is that established by the Edge
and application scenarios. EC is defined by several Computing Consortium: Edge Computing is a
authors as a set of devices, sensors, computer distributed open platform at the network edge,
resources and computers that produce and collect close to the things or data sources, integrating the
data that are then sent to cloud centers. They capabilities of networks, storage, and applications.
approach the concept of edge computing in terms of By delivering edge intelligence services, Edge

Table 1: Difference between Edge and Cloud Computing16

Edge Cloud

Advantages · Real time response. · Scalable.

· Low Latency. · Big Data processing.
· Edge can work without · Unlimited storage capacity.
cloud and improve data security.
· The EC distributed structure
reduces: network traffic, storage
and bandwith cost.
Disadvantages · Storage capacity is limited · Response time is slow.
· EC needs proprietary networks. · High latency.
· IoT devices have a high · Cloud does not have an
power consumption. offline mode.
· Difficult to maintain the security of data.
· High costs of data storage and transmission.
 SITTÓN-CANDANEDO & CORCHADO, Orient. J. Comp. Sci. & Technol., Vol. 12(2) 34-38 (2019) 36

Computing meets the key requirements of digitisation each other making it possible to deploy resources
for agile connectivity, real-time services, data with ubiquitous accessibility. However, even when
optimisation, application intelligence, security and working together, they face the challenges of
privacy protection.15 This definition establishes what mobility, scalability, reliability, security, privacy or
organizations currently demand: "platforms capable limited energy.
of processing data in a secure and private manner,
providing answers to users in real time". Figure 1 shows an edge computing ecosystem,
based on the work of W. Yu, F. Liang, X. He, Hatcher,
IoT applications and services must be able to support W G., Lu, C., Lin, J., Yang, X. (2017).16 It supports
heterogeneous devices that generate large volumes how these two technologies complement each other
of events and data. This feature makes it difficult by integrating to more efficiently manage this flow
to find the development specifications that would of information. In this sense, the devices need to
take advantage of all IoT potential. Considering be managed and the data collected needs to be
these concepts, Edge Computing increases IoT analyzed and this requires a coordination of the
performance with its distributed structure, likewise cloud with the network.
network traffic can be significantly minimized; latency
transmission between the edge node the cloud and The Figure 1 components are described as follows:
end users can be improved; and therefore the real- • Devices and sensors: responsibles to
time response of IoT applications compared to cloud generate and collect data. This group of
and fog computing. devices interact directly with the end user
(sensors, smar tphones, tablets, smar t
Table 1 resumes the main differences between EC bracelets or laptops) and although some offer
and Cloud Computing, dispite with all the advantages services and answer in real time, most of
mentioned above, it is important to clarify that the them have a limited capacity. Therefore, they
process of increasing the processing or computing need to send requests to equipment located
capabilities of IoT devices located at the edge of the on the Edge infrastructure.
network, using EC, does not replace the functions • Edge infrastructure: there are distributed data
performed by Cloud services. In this regard, is centers to provide realtime data processing,
important to note that cloud and edge computing data visualization, analitycs, filtering,
are very different technologies which complement optimizacion. They being located closer to

Fig. 1: Edge and Cloud Computing16

 SITTÓN-CANDANEDO & CORCHADO, Orient. J. Comp. Sci. & Technol., Vol. 12(2) 34-38 (2019) 37

end users, they process, cache storage, and data storage, requests for real-time response have
perform calculations for a large volume of given rise to Edge Computing. The main advantages
data. With this capability, the edge reduces of edge computing as following: real-time analysis of
data flow and costs of using cloud services, data at the level of local devices and edge nodes and
as well as reducing end-user response time not necessarily in the cloud; reduction of operating
and latency. costs, traffic and data transfer between the Edge and
• Cloud: It offers a greater density of compute, the cloud; increase the performance of applications
storage, networking resources. Cloud servers for IoT scenarios by reducing network latency; and
host applications for automatic learning, big finally allows integration with Blockchain technology
data analysis and business intelligence. for security. As future lines of research, the authors
propose the design of an edge computing reference
Finally, edge computing is a new paradigm that architecture for IoT scenarios.
promises to provide the required computing and
storage resources with a decrease in delays due to Acknowledgments
its "proximity" to end users or devices. This tutorial This research has been partially supported by
included a state of the art in the field of EC with the the project “Intelligent and sustainable mobility
objective of guiding readers towards current trends, supported by multi-agent systems and edge
challenges and future research opportunities in the computing” (Id. RTI2018-095390-B-C32). Inés
area of edge computing. Sittón-Candanedo has been suppor ted by
IFARHU – SENACYT scholarship program
Conclusion (Government of Panama).
This work is an edge computing state of the art
review, which is a disruptive technology driven by Conflict of Interest
the development of the Internet of Things and the We dont have conflict of interest including any
devices of our environment permanently connected financial, personal or other relationships with other
to the Internet. IoT devices generate data in real time people or organizations that can influence in our
and constantly. The growing number of sensors, work.
connected machines, geographic heterogeneity for

Reference

1. Gubbi J., Buyya R., Marusic S. & Palaniswami 1454–1464 (2017).

M. Internet of Things (IoT): A vision, 5. Mell P., Grance T. & others. The NIST
architectural elements, and future directions. definition of cloud computing. (2011).
Futur. Gener. Comput. Syst. 29, 1645–1660 6. De La Prieta F. & Corchado J.M. Cloud
(2013). computing and multiagent systems, a
2. Ganz F., Puschmann D., Barnaghi P. & Carrez promising relationship. in Intelligent Agents
F. A Practical Evaluation of Information in Data-intensive Computing (ed. Springer,
Processing and Abstraction Techniques for C.) 143–161 (Springer, Cham., 2016).
the Internet of Things. IEEE Internet Things 7. Varghese B., Wang N., Barbhuiya S.,
J. 2, 340–354 (2015). Kilpatrick P. & Nikolopoulos D.S. Challenges
3. Premsankar G., Di Francesco M. & Taleb T. and Opportunities in Edge Computing.
Edge Computing for the Internet of Things: Proc. - 2016 IEEE Int. Conf. Smart Cloud,
A Case Study. IEEE Internet Things J. 5, SmartCloud 2016 20–26 (2016). doi:10.1109/
1275–1284 (2018). SmartCloud.2016.18
4. Risteska Stojkoska B.L. & Trivodaliev K.V.A 8. Garcia P, Montresor A., Epema D., Datta
review of Internet of Things for smart home: A., Higashino T., Iamnitchi A., Barcellos
Challenges and solutions. J. Clean. Prod. 140, M., Felber P. and Riviere E. Edge-centric
 SITTÓN-CANDANEDO & CORCHADO, Orient. J. Comp. Sci. & Technol., Vol. 12(2) 34-38 (2019) 38

computing: Vision and challenges. ACM (Switzerland) 19, (2019).

SIGCOMM Comput. Commun. Rev. 45, 12. Shi W., Cao J., Zhang Q., Li Y. & Xu L. Edge
37–42 (2015). Computing: Vision and Challenges. IEEE
9. Calheiros R.N., Ranjan R., Beloglazov A., De Internet Things J. 3, 637–646 (2016).
Rose C.A.F. & Buyya R. CloudSim: A toolkit for 13. Satyanarayanan M. The Emergence of Edge
modeling and simulation of cloud computing Computing. Computer (Long. Beach. Calif).
environments and evaluation of resource 50, 30–39 (2017).
provisioning algorithms. Softw. - Pract. Exp. 14. Shi W. & Schahram D. The promise of Edge
41, 23–50 Computing. Computer (Long. Beach. Calif).
10. El-Sayed H., Sankar S., Prasad M., Puthal 49, 78–81 (2016).
D., Gupta A., Mohanty M. and Lin C.T. Edge 15. Edge Computing, C. & (AII), A. of I. I. Edge
of Things: The Big Picture on the Integration Computing Reference Architecture 2.0.
of Edge, IoT and the Cloud in a Distributed (2017).
Computing Environment. IEEE Access 6, 16. Yu W., Liang F., He X., Hatcher W.G., Lu C.,
1706–1717 (2017). Lin J. and Yang X. A Survey on the Edge
11. Zeng F., Ren Y., Deng X. & Li W. Cost- Computing for the Internet of Things. IEEE
effective edge server placement in wireless Access 6, 6900–6919 (2017)
metropolitan area networks. Sensors