Edge computing is pushing the frontier of computer applications, data and services away from centralised nodes to the logical ends of a network. It allows the generation of analysis and knowledge to occur in the source of the data. This approach requires taking advantage of resources that may not be continuously connected to a network such as laptops, smartphones, tablets and sensors. Edge Computing encompasses a wide range of technologies including wireless sensor networks, mobile data acquisition, mobile signature analysis, peer-to-peer distributed cooperative ad hoc networks and processing also classifiable as cloud / local cloud computing and grid / Mesh, mobile edge computing, cloud-let, distributed data storage and retrieval, stand-alone self-healing networks, remote cloud services, augmented reality and more.
Transmitting massive amounts of raw data across a network places a tremendous burden on your network resources. In some cases, it is much more efficient to process data near its source and send only data that has value over the network to a remote data centre. Instead of continually transmitting oil level data to a car engine, for example, an automotive sensor could simply send summary data to a remote server periodically. Or an intelligent thermostat can only transmit data if the temperature rises or falls outside acceptable limits. Or an intelligent Wi-Fi security camera aimed at an elevator door can use edge analysis and only transmit data when a certain percentage of pixels change significantly between two consecutive images, indicating movement.
Edge computing can also benefit remote office / branch office environments (ROBO) and organisations that have a geographically dispersed user base. In this scenario, micro-data centres or high-performance servers can be installed in remote locations to replicate services in the cloud locally, improving the performance and capacity of a device to act on perishable data in fractions of a second. Depending on the vendor and technical implementation, the broker may be referred to by one of several names, including edge gateway, base station, hub, cloud-let, or aggregator.