Edge Computing: State-of-the-Art and Future Directions

With the burgeoning of the Internet of everything, the amount of data generated by edge devices increases dramatically, resulting in higher network bandwidth requirements. In the meanwhile, the emergence of novel applications calls for the lower latency of the network. It is an unprecedented challenge to guarantee the quality of service while dealing with a massive amount of data for cloud computing, which has pushed the horizon of edge computing. Edge computing calls for processing the data at the edge of the network and develops rapidly from 2014 as it has the potential to reduce latency and bandwidth charges, address the limitation of computing capability of cloud data center, increase availability as well as protect data privacy and security. This paper mainly discusses three questions about edge computing: where does it come from, what is the current status and where is it going? This paper first sorts out the development process of edge computing and divides it into three periods: technology preparation period, rapid growth period and steady development period. This paper then summarizes seven essential technologies that drive the rapid development of edge computing. After that, six typical applications that have been widely used in edge computing are illustrated. Finally, this paper proposes six open problems that need to be solved urgently in future development.