Towards deviceless edge computing: Challenges, design aspects, and models for serverless paradigm at the edge

Abstract

The serverless paradigm has been rapidly adopted by developers of cloud-native applications, mainly because it relieves them from the burden of provisioning, scaling, and operating the underlying infrastructure. In this chapter, we propose a novel computing paradigm-Deviceless Edge Computing- that extends the serverless paradigm to the edge of the network, enabling IoT and Edge devices, such as gateways and micro clouds, to be seamlessly integrated as application execution infrastructure. We propose a reference architecture for the Deviceless Edge Computing. We also analyze the main requirements and challenges to realize this novel computing paradigm from two main points of view: (1) required support for application development, in terms of programming models, and (2) required runtime support for deviceless applications, in terms of main deviceless platform mechanisms. Finally, we show how our existing work in the area of Edge Computing and IoT serves as starting point and as one of main enablers for realizing the emerging Deviceless Edge Computing.