Emerging Technologies in Edge Computing and Networking

Dear Colleagues,

The global evolution of the Internet is experiencing a notable and inevitable change towards a convergent scenario known as the Internet of Things (IoT), where a large number of devices with heterogeneous characteristics and requirements have to be interconnected to serve different verticals, such as smart cities, intelligent transportation systems (ITS) or e-health. In order to satisfy the strict requirements related to end-to-end latency and the scalability of new services, as well as the processing of the massive volume of data that they generate, it is necessary to design and deploy a decentralized service platform architecture based on MEC (multi-access edge computing) and/or fog computing, with the aim of reducing the distance between the source of data and the processing resources. Moreover, 5G, and especially 6G, have been proposed to fulfil the strict latency and scalability constraints, providing cell-less multiaccess networks controlled by efficient artificial intelligence techniques and supported by MEC. All these elements are forcing a holistic redesign of communication networks and distributed computing and storage architectures to maximize the performance/cost ratio, meeting the demanding challenges of latency, scalability, bandwidth, availability and flexibility that future services will require. The softwarization and virtualization of networks using SDN and NFV paradigms are essential technologies for that convergence. The implementation of an open control layer based on them will facilitate the management of the multiple computing and networking technologies that will coexist and will make it possible to face the needs and requirements of 5G/6G associated with future applications and services. Moreover, they eliminate the so-called vendor lock-in in favor of a vendor-independent programmable network environment that allows the assembly of different devices (white-boxes) manufactured by multiple providers.

Researchers from edge computing and networking communities are encouraged to submit papers to this Special Issue with their contributions, exploring emerging technologies that allow the integration of future edge computing and networks.

Dr. Javier Prieto
Dr. Ramón J. Durán Barroso
Guest Editors

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