- Edge-computing - lists.opendev.org

Upcoming Monday discussions
by Ildiko Vancsa 29 Oct '21

29 Oct '21

Hi, I’m happy to announce that we have a lot of great sessions and discussion topics coming up on our schedule for November! Our lineup for the month is: * November 1st - Hardware, TPM and Trust & Verification * November 8th - Digital Rebar overview and discussions by Rob Hirschfeld * November 15th - Smart Edge project overview and discussions by Neal Oliver * November 29th - Networking and Ipv6 discussion with Ed Horley You can also find these on the working group’s wiki page along with other resources: https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Edge_Computing_Group#Upcoming_Events See You next Monday!! Thanks and Best Regards, Ildikó ——— Ildikó Váncsa Senior Manager, Community & Ecosystem Open Infrastructure Foundation

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PTG recordings are now available!
by Ildiko Vancsa 26 Oct '21

26 Oct '21

Hi, The recent Project Teams Gathering (PTG) event was held last week in an online format. The OpenInfra Edge Computing Group participated with very lively sessions on three consecutive days. Beyond taking notes we also recorded our sessions so people who weren’t able to attend can catch up or those of you who were there can refresh your memories or check parts where might’ve had to step away from the call a little bit. The recordings along with the link to the etherpad with notes are now accessible on the working group’s wiki: https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Edge_Computing_Group#Virtual_PTG_Recordings… Please let me know if you have any questions or have issues with accessing any of the recordings. Thanks and Best Regards, Ildikó ——— Ildikó Váncsa Senior Manager, Community & Ecosystem Open Infrastructure Foundation

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Re: [Edge-computing] PTG recordings are now available!
by Rob H 26 Oct '21

26 Oct '21

ThanksRackN.com 512.773.7533 -------- Original message --------From: Ildiko Vancsa <ildiko(a)openstack.org> Date: 10/25/21 3:52 PM (GMT-06:00) To: edge-computing <edge-computing(a)lists.openstack.org> Subject: [Edge-computing] PTG recordings are now available! Hi,The recent Project Teams Gathering (PTG) event was held last week in an online format. The OpenInfra Edge Computing Group participated with very lively sessions on three consecutive days.Beyond taking notes we also recorded our sessions so people who weren’t able to attend can catch up or those of you who were there can refresh your memories or check parts where might’ve had to step away from the call a little bit.The recordings along with the link to the etherpad with notes are now accessible on the working group’s wiki: https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Edge_Computing_Group#Virtual_PTG_Recordings… let me know if you have any questions or have issues with accessing any of the recordings.Thanks and Best Regards,Ildikó———Ildikó VáncsaSenior Manager, Community & EcosystemOpen Infrastructure Foundation_______________________________________________Edge-computing mailing listEdge-computing@lists.openstack.orghttp://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/edge-computing

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PTG and upcoming meetings
by Ildiko Vancsa 23 Oct '21

23 Oct '21

Hi, We had an amazing time at the PTG this week, I would like to thank all of you who were able to attend the edge sessions at the event! A summary write-up is on its way and will be published soon, if you missed any or all of them or just would like to be able to catch up on what we discussed to refresh your memories. I will also share the links to he recordings as soon as they are available. In the meantime you can check the notes from our discussions here: https://etherpad.opendev.org/p/ecg-ptg-october-2021 As a follow up to the PTG we will have two upcoming meetings dedicated to discuss specific topics and areas: * November 8th - Digital Rebar overview and discussions by Rob Hirschfeld * November 15th - Smart Edge project overview and discussions by Neal Oliver You can also find these on the working group’s wiki page along with other resources: https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Edge_Computing_Group#Upcoming_Events Please let me know if you have any questions to any of the above. Thanks and Best Regards, Ildikó ——— Ildikó Váncsa Senior Manager, Community & Ecosystem Open Infrastructure Foundation

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PTG sessions are now on!! - JOIN NOW
by Ildiko Vancsa 20 Oct '21

20 Oct '21

Hi All, It is a friendly reminder that the edge PTG sessions are starting now! You can find the join in link by clicking on “edge” in the agenda here: https://ptg.opendev.org/ptg.html Thanks, Ildikó ——— Ildikó Váncsa Senior Manager, Community & Ecosystem Open Infrastructure Foundation

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PTG Updates
by Ildiko Vancsa 19 Oct '21

19 Oct '21

Hi, Today we had great discussions with the group of people who joined. Our topics covered Automation and Trust & Verification at the Edge. For the first topic we touched on the challenges of handling a heterogenous pool of hardware resources throughout edge locations, portability and reusability and the challenges of versioning. The second topic also touched on hardware aspects through the heavy use of TPM in edge scenarios, but we were looking into other solutions as well. The session covered the challenges of deploying edge devices at remote locations considering full automation where the device doesn’t need human interaction as well as the cases where a technician interacts with the box. You can find the full notes of our 2-hour slot here: https://etherpad.opendev.org/p/ecg-ptg-october-2021 Tomorrow (Tuesday, October 19) we will start at 1400 UTC / 7am Pacific / 16:00 CEST! See you tomorrow! Thanks and Best Regards, Ildikó ——— Ildikó Váncsa Senior Manager, Community & Ecosystem Open Infrastructure Foundation

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No meeting next week in favor of our sessions at the PTG
by Ildiko Vancsa 12 Oct '21

12 Oct '21

Hi, We are now just one week out from the Project Teams Gathering (PTG) event that starts next Monday (October 18)! As the OpenInfra Edge Computing Group is meeting there Monday - Wednesday we are __canceling our weekly call on Monday (October 18)__. The first OpenInfra Edge Computing Group session __starts at 1400 UTC (7am Pacific / 4pm CEST) on Monday (October 18)__. We would like to invite you to participate in our discussions to untangle the edge and get on top of the challenges of edge infrastructure. You can find a summary of the edge sessions here: https://superuser.openstack.org/articles/the-project-teams-gathering-is-com… We build our agenda and will take notes on this etherpad: https://etherpad.opendev.org/p/ecg-ptg-october-2021 If you haven’t registered to the event yet, please do so here so you receive the latest updates about the event and how to join: https://www.openstack.org/ptg/ Please let me know if you have any questions about the edge sessions or the event in general. Thanks, Ildikó ——— Ildikó Váncsa Senior Manager, Community & Ecosystem Open Infrastructure Foundation

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Meeting recap
by Ildiko Vancsa 06 Oct '21

06 Oct '21

Hi, This Monday we had two topics to discuss during our weekly call. We were continuing the preparation for the upcoming PTG[1] to make sure we are ready to discuss the topics we’ve outlined. Our etherpad[2] contains all the topics and session information while we are still working with a few adjacent communities to fit their sessions in. We also started to dive into the topic of edge hardware and how that relates to infrastructure software that goes on top of it. As hardware and software on the infrastructure layer can be decoupled, but will not become completely independent, we need to focus on how to handle the challenges that we are facing due to the massively distributed systems that edge computing use cases demand. We need to distinguish between IoT and edge, we need to decide the approach to take with the overall architecture and where control functions live and how to manage the hardware resources locally while might still keep a centralized control plane after all. We will keep on untangling these challenges and more on the upcoming weekly calls as we outlined on the meeting etherpad[3]. If you are interested in joining our calls please see our wiki[4] for dial-in information and agenda. Also please note that the weekly meeting on October 18 will be canceled in favor of the edge sessions we will be having at the PTG[1]. Thanks and Best Regards, Ildikó [1] https://www.openstack.org/ptg [2] https://etherpad.opendev.org/p/ecg-ptg-october-2021 [3] https://etherpad.opendev.org/p/osf-edge-computing-group [4] https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Edge_Computing_Group#Meetings ——— Ildikó Váncsa Senior Manager, Community & Ecosystem Open Infrastructure Foundation

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Exploring hardware for the edge
by Ildiko Vancsa 23 Sep '21

23 Sep '21

Hi, Following up the presentation from the Chameleon project last Monday[1] we will deep dive into the topic of hardware at the edge. While hardware design is not in the scope of this working group we still keep track of needs and options to make sure that the integration between the hardware and software layer is smooth in order to leverage the best of both layers. We will be discussing hardware needs for the edge to fulfill the requirements of new and demanding use cases. We will also be discussing the challenges of testing and evaluating specialized hardware as well, since that task is not as straight forward as it might seem. Join us on Mondays at 6am Pacific / 9am Central / 1300 UTC to discuss this topic and more! For further details and dial-in information please see our wiki: https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Edge_Computing_Group#Meetings If you would like to add topics to the meeting agenda, please add them on the wiki or reply with your thoughts and suggestions to this mail. Thanks and Best Regards, Ildikó [1] https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Edge_Computing_Group#CHI.40Edge_-_recording… ——— Ildikó Váncsa Senior Manager, Community & Ecosystem Open Infrastructure Foundation

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Weekly calls are on MEETPAD again
by Ildiko Vancsa 16 Sep '21

16 Sep '21

Hi, It is a friendly reminder that next Monday (September 20) our weekly calls will return to Meetpad that we have been using for a little while now. For the meeting details and agenda please check out this wiki: https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Edge_Computing_Group#Meetings Thanks, Ildikó ——— Ildikó Váncsa Senior Manager, Community & Ecosystem Open Infrastructure Foundation

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Edge for scientific research session on September 13
by Ildiko Vancsa 14 Sep '21

14 Sep '21

Hi, I’m very excited to invite you to a session with the Chameleon project to discuss how edge computing is powering education, scientific research and more! As always in the area of edge there are challenges and gaps that we need to solve together. In that sense the session will start with a presentation that we will then turn into a discussion to turn towards discussing solutions. The session will take place on the weekly call on __September 13, at 1300 UTC / 6am Pacific__. Please find the details of the session below. Thanks and Best Regards, Ildikó Title: Chameleon: a cloud to edge infrastructure for science Abstract: The NSF-funded Chameleon project (www.chameleoncloud.org) provides an OpenStack-based bare metal reconfigurable cloud that supports systems research, education, and emergent application projects in science. The facility has been in existence for 6+ years, and has served ~6,000 users working on a variety of projects ranging from networking, operating systems design, and security, to innovative applications in astronomy, physics, and life sciences. Recent research trends in IoT and edge computing, as evidenced by increased numbers of project applications in those areas, made it clear that Chameleon needed to expand into the edge space. Remaining within the OpenStack framework allowed us to leverage end-user features that we developed for Chameleon, such as access via federated identity and Jupyter integration. Accordingly, we developed infrastructure called CHI@Edge that adapts Zun to provision containers on edge devices and significantly expands its capabilities to work in the edge space. The talk will describe our use case and the emergent product definition, the OpenStack adaptations we made to the current preview implementation, the directions we plan to take in our further work, as well as the ecosystem of projects and NSF infrastructure deployments leveraging this work and collaborating with us. ——— Ildikó Váncsa Senior Manager, Community & Ecosystem Open Infrastructure Foundation

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Today's meeting is on ZOOM
by Ildiko Vancsa 13 Sep '21

13 Sep '21

Hi, It is a friendly reminder that today’s meeting will be on Zoom! For the dial in details please check this wiki: https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Edge_Computing_Group#Meetings Thanks, Ildikó ——— Ildikó Váncsa Senior Manager, Community & Ecosystem Open Infrastructure Foundation

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Upcoming meeting schedule
by Ildiko Vancsa 31 Aug '21

31 Aug '21

Hi, As we have a couple things coming up for our weekly calls I wanted to give you a quick overview and reminder of our plans for the next few weeks: * August 30 - We’ve been discussing our plans for the upcoming PTG[1] event which we will be finalizing on this call. * September 6 - US Labor Day, the meeting will be cancelled. * September 13 - Chameleon project: edge for education and scientific research presentation and discussion. As a reminder the weekly calls are happening on Mondays at 6am Pacific / 1300 UTC. You can find the meeting details here: https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Edge_Computing_Group#Meetings Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks, Ildikó [1] https://www.openstack.org/ptg/ ——— Ildikó Váncsa Senior Manager, Community & Ecosystem Open Infrastructure Foundation

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Updated Edge October 2021 PTG Session writeups
by Cohen, Beth F 27 Aug '21

27 Aug '21

Folks - Please review the session writeups. I have 12 sessions identified from a total of 14. Some of them can be broken into two sessions, so I suspect we do have enough sessions to fill all the slots at this point. https://etherpad.opendev.org/p/ecg-ptg-october-2021 -- -- *Beth Cohen* SDN Network Product Strategy Verizon Business Group M 781.434.8553

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Blog post series and PTG
by Ildiko Vancsa 09 Aug '21

09 Aug '21

Hi, First of all let me announce that our new blog post, 'Is Edge Computing a Distributed System at Scale?’, is now live on Superuser: https://superuser.openstack.org/articles/is-edge-computing-a-distributed-sy… The discussion on distributed systems and/vs edge computing has just started, we have a lot more to untangle there. Hereby I would like to invite everyone who has some follow up thoughts or questions to the above blog to join our calls on Mondays at 6am PDT / 1300 UTC[1]. We have a thread already going about the distributed systems topic. If you’re not on the edge-computing mailing list[2], you can check the archive here: http://lists.openstack.org/pipermail/edge-computing/2021-August/000779.html If you would like to join the discussion please subscribe to the mailing list and reply to the thread. We are also continuously looking for new topics, so if you have an edge conundrum you can bring that to discuss with the group as well! The Edge Computing Group will be participating in the upcoming PTG[3] in October. We have three slots booked for this fully online event for some more deep dive technical discussions about edge infrastructures including challenges and solutions. If you have topics you would like to discuss please add that to our planning etherpad: https://etherpad.opendev.org/p/ecg-ptg-october-2021 Also please add your name to your topic and add your contact info to the etherpad so we can keep you in the loop during the planning phase. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks and Best Regards, Ildikó [1] https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Edge_Computing_Group#Meetings [2] http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/edge-computing [3] https://www.openstack.org/ptg/ ——— Ildikó Váncsa Senior Manager, Community & Ecosystem Open Infrastructure Foundation

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Edits to the Blog completed
by Cohen, Beth F 09 Aug '21

09 Aug '21

Ildiko and the rest of the Edge group. I have edited the Blog and hopefully made it a better and more entertaining read. -- -- *Beth Cohen* SDN Network Product Strategy Verizon Business Group M 781.434.8553

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Re: [Edge-computing] Distributed systems first blog post
by lebre.adrien＠free.fr 09 Aug '21

09 Aug '21

> > Hi, > > > > @Ildiko, thanks once again for this draft. > > > > @All, It is still not clear whether the ''centralization'' word is > > clear (in particular in this sentence, "... we will need autonomy > > and centralization..." > > By centralisation here we mean that we would like to be able to > > administrate/use all edge sites (or edge areas) like if it was a > > single DC. However this ''centralisation'' can be implemented in > > different manners. > > Would it be possible to qualify this term or to make it clear that > > it is not a centralized system as such (i.e. a single point of > > failure with all well known limitation such as scalability etc.)? > > How about 'autonomy and hierarchical control loops'? That doesn't > bring the > notion of centralisation but rather subordination. The term ''hierarchical'' looks to me also connoted. I have the feeling that it is the notion of a mechanism capable of giving the illusion that all the edge sites form a single system that is important, isn't it? A kind of single pane of glass that can be used to manage the life cycle of -- both -- the edge sites/areas -- and -- the edge applications. > > > > > @Rob, if you have time, can you please give a look to the questions > > I put in the main etherpad: > > https://etherpad.opendev.org/p/ecg-untangling-the-edge. > > Actually, I'm not sure I'm capturing well t the exact services you > > expect from this ''centralised'' system. If I correctly > > understood, it looks like it is a golden node that is used to > > (re)configure/(re)synchronise the edge sites. If I fully agree > > such services are mandatory to manage/interact with each > > independent control plane (one per edge site/area), this system > > should also provide the right abstractions/mechanisms to manage > > the life cycle of the edge applications (which can be deployed > > across multiple edge sites/areas). In other words, we need > > independent control loops for each edge area and at least one > > control loop to manage applications. > > > > Without discussing now whether such a system could be implemented > > in a (geo-)distributed manner or whether we need one global > > application control loop or one per application, I would > > appreciate if we could highlight the fact that the control loop > > at the higher level (i.e. ''the centralised system you mention in > > your initial text'') is more complex than a golden node that is > > used to keep each edge site synchronised. . > > I would stick to a concept of targeted (or causal) events sourcing. > Like each > edge site has to follow a dedicated sub-flow of events in order to > keep being > synchronised, irrelevant to the state of its neighbours. That is > unlike to the > classic events sourcing, where the golden node tells its replicas to > strictly > apply (or reply) events from a log/journal. Does that makes sense? > The events > source concept is high level enough, it would not bring the blog > readers to the > jungles of technical details. If I'm correctly understanding your point, this might be ok but we need to consider that some events are related to the edge applications you would like to execute across different edge sites (i.e. events are not only related to keeping edge sites synchronised). best regards, Adrien >

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Re: [Edge-computing] Distributed systems first blog post
by Bogdan Dobrelya 02 Aug '21

02 Aug '21

> Hi, > > @Ildiko, thanks once again for this draft. > > @All, It is still not clear whether the ''centralization'' word is clear (in particular in this sentence, "... we will need autonomy and centralization..." > By centralisation here we mean that we would like to be able to administrate/use all edge sites (or edge areas) like if it was a single DC. However this ''centralisation'' can be implemented in different manners. > Would it be possible to qualify this term or to make it clear that it is not a centralized system as such (i.e. a single point of failure with all well known limitation such as scalability etc.)? How about 'autonomy and hierarchical control loops'? That doesn't bring the notion of centralisation but rather subordination. > > @Rob, if you have time, can you please give a look to the questions I put in the main etherpad: https://etherpad.opendev.org/p/ecg-untangling-the-edge. > Actually, I'm not sure I'm capturing well t the exact services you expect from this ''centralised'' system. If I correctly understood, it looks like it is a golden node that is used to (re)configure/(re)synchronise the edge sites. If I fully agree such services are mandatory to manage/interact with each independent control plane (one per edge site/area), this system should also provide the right abstractions/mechanisms to manage the life cycle of the edge applications (which can be deployed across multiple edge sites/areas). In other words, we need independent control loops for each edge area and at least one control loop to manage applications. > > Without discussing now whether such a system could be implemented in a (geo-)distributed manner or whether we need one global application control loop or one per application, I would appreciate if we could highlight the fact that the control loop at the higher level (i.e. ''the centralised system you mention in your initial text'') is more complex than a golden node that is used to keep each edge site synchronised. . I would stick to a concept of targeted (or causal) events sourcing. Like each edge site has to follow a dedicated sub-flow of events in order to keep being synchronised, irrelevant to the state of its neighbours. That is unlike to the classic events sourcing, where the golden node tells its replicas to strictly apply (or reply) events from a log/journal. Does that makes sense? The events source concept is high level enough, it would not bring the blog readers to the jungles of technical details. > > Hope this helps move forward the discussion ;-) > Thanks > Adrien -- Best regards, Bogdan Dobrelya, Irc #bogdando

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Distributed systems first blog post
by Ildiko Vancsa 28 Jul '21

28 Jul '21

Hi, As our discussions have been evolving around distributed systems and edge computing I typed up the first blog entry to kick off the mini series about this topic. I was focusing on questions and highlighting some of our debates as we have a lot of good content on the main etherpad that don’t fit into one blog post neither did we finish discussing some of them. I’m also hoping that we might be able to attract more people to join the conversation. The current version of the blog is here for review before it gets posted on superuser.openstack.org: https://etherpad.opendev.org/p/ecg-distributed-edge-mini-series Please let me know if you have any comments or questions to this piece or the discussion itself. Thanks, Ildikó ——— Ildikó Váncsa Senior Manager, Community & Ecosystem Open Infrastructure Foundation

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Sign up to the upcoming PTG in October
by Ildiko Vancsa 13 Jul '21

13 Jul '21

Hi, While the next PTG[1] is a little while away on October 18 - 22, we need to decide about time slots for the Edge Computing Group till next Wednesday! The event will be a fully online event. As a reminder, previously we had 2 x 2 hours and 1 x 3 hours to discuss relevant topics as well as to schedule cross-project discussions and sync with adjacent communities. I believe we didn’t always use all the available time, so it might make sense to re-visit. __What is people's preference in terms of the length and number of slots we would like to reserve for edge discussions?__ Please __respond with your preference by the end of this week__ to make sure we have time for debate and to submit our request to the event organizers. If you are planning to attend the event please register[2], the registration is already open. I also created a new etherpad to throw topic ideas in: https://etherpad.opendev.org/p/ecg-ptg-october-2021 Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks, Ildikó [1] https://www.openstack.org/ptg/ [2] https://openinfra-ptg.eventbrite.com/ ——— Ildikó Váncsa Senior Manager, Community & Ecosystem Open Infrastructure Foundation

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Tangled up in Edge blog post is live!
by Ildiko Vancsa 08 Jul '21

08 Jul '21

Hi, I wanted to give a heads up and draw your attention to the new blog post from the OpenInfra Edge Computing Group titled ‘Tangled up in Edge’: https://superuser.openstack.org/articles/tangled-up-in-edge-a-blog-by-the-o… It is the first piece of a series, if you are interested in helping to write up the next article join our weekly calls on Mondays! Our next call is on July 12 at 1300 UTC: https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Edge_Computing_Group#Meetings We will keep on talking about the challenges of distributed management for edge infrastructures. You can find the notes from the previous meeting starting from Line 48 on this etherpad: https://etherpad.opendev.org/p/ecg-untangling-the-edge If you cannot join our next meeting just reply to this thread to join the discussion and share your comments or questions. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks, Ildikó ——— Ildikó Váncsa Senior Manager, Community & Ecosystem Open Infrastructure Foundation

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Next meeting on July 5 is cancelled
by Ildiko Vancsa 28 Jun '21

28 Jun '21

Hi, Due to many of the participants will be on holiday next Monday (July 5) we are cancelling the next occasion and will reconvene the week after. The next meeting is on__ Monday, July 12 at 1300 UTC__. For more information about the OpenInfra Edge Computing Group and our meetings please see this wiki: https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Edge_Computing_Group Thanks and Best Regards, Ildikó ——— Ildikó Váncsa Senior Manager, Community & Ecosystem Open Infrastructure Foundation

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Distributed Management for Edge discussion next week
by Ildiko Vancsa 28 Jun '21

28 Jun '21

Hi, I mentioned in a thread earlier that we started to work on blog posts to cover common questions, conundrums and confusions in the area of edge computing. As part of this series we picked distributed management as our next topic to untangle. If you are interested in participating please join our next weekly call next Monday (June 28) at 1300 UTC and/or add your thoughts and comments starting at line #46 to this etherpad: https://etherpad.opendev.org/p/ecg-untangling-the-edge For further information about the working group and meeting details please check out our wiki: https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Edge_Computing_Group Thanks and Best Regards, Ildikó ——— Ildikó Váncsa Senior Manager, Community & Ecosystem Open Infrastructure Foundation

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Canceling the next two weekly calls
by Ildiko Vancsa 07 Jun '21

07 Jun '21

Hi, We are canceling the next two weekly calls due to holidays and conflicts. Next Monday is Memorial Day in the US and the week after most of the call attendees will attend the upcoming LFN DDF. The next call will happen on _Monday, June 14 at 1300 UTC__. We are currently working on a blog series to untangle the edge and just finished the first draft which should be posted soon! We are collecting thoughts and topics to write about here: https://etherpad.opendev.org/p/ecg-untangling-the-edge Please throw in ideas and comments on the ehterpad above if you would like to participate in the discussion. For details about the weekly calls and more information about the group please visit our wiki: https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Edge_Computing_Group Thanks and Best Regards, Ildikó ——— Ildikó Váncsa Senior Manager, Community & Ecosystem Open Infrastructure Foundation

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Edge Blog text
by Cohen, Beth F 24 May '21

24 May '21

Folks - Here is the cleaned up text for our first Blog. Plenty of materials and follow up here. Ildiko: I assume you will be taking it to get it posted on the Super User site. Tangled Up in Edge A Blog by the Open Infra Edge Working Group Edge computing has been part of the emerging technology landscape for coming up on 5 years now, yet somehow, it remains somewhat of a mystery (or possibly just a Byzantine maze). The OpenInfra Edge Computing Group has been working towards understanding what edge computing is and what it is not. To demonstrate the crux of the issue, according to the telecoms and their analysts, it is a way of delivering low latency (something that telecom will tell you is REALLY important) to applications such as some Industrial IoT (autonomous vehicles, UAV), VR/AR, gaming, and telematics applications; these use cases are clearly dependent on low latency for their performance. On the other hand, another way of looking at Edge is use cases such as video processing, AI/ML, IoT monitoring for maintenance and diagnostics, where the objective is to use limited bandwidth capacity more effectively by shifting information processing closer to where the data is generated (the Edge). Since defining what exactly edge is, borders on the futile, that does not mean that there is not plenty to talk about. The group stepped away from creating a definition, as in our experience pinpointing exactly what industry and analysts mean when they talks about edge computing is rather elusive. Far more interesting Edge topics are what is happening to Edge adoption as the technology, use cases and tooling mature. The working group will be sharing our findings and thoughts on some of the more knotty Edge issues that we have encountered, and with that, a blog is born. The OpenInfra Edge Computing Group will be publishing a series of blog posts to address some of the thornier aspects of edge computing as it enters the mainstream adoption cycle. We will focus on the far more interesting discussion of the technology and architectures needed to support edge workloads – in whatever form or criteria is required for the given use case. There is no question that there are many edge use cases, ranging from content delivery to tracking data from IoT devices. However, the deeper into the use cases you get, the more it becomes apparent that there are multiple edge related efforts each with their own definitions, architectures and requirements. That does not mean that there are no common criteria and features, it just shows that they are slippery and constantly evolving, depending more on the specific industry use cases and perspective of the related user community ecosystem. Some common Edge considerations that will be explored in more depth include: - *Workload latency (to end users)* – This metric can vary from under 2 ms to orders of magnitude higher. This criteria is often most touted by telecom operators as being the most important factor to consider, but that is more a function of their strong network bias than any requirement for any give Edge use case. Yes, there are use cases that are heavily dependent on low latency and they are worthy of more exploration - *Network Transport Considerations* – How does the underlying transport affect use cases and the thinking about Edge? This is a rich area to dig into as it has been somewhat overlooked. In short, it is much harder to actually manage in real life so to speak. · Edge should be transport agnostic, so why is it not? · MEC/Edge/5G are not the same thing at all, how did they get so confused? - *Where are my Edge workloads?* -- Where are the workloads and how are they moved around on the Edge and between the Edge and Center -- some workloads will need to be located at the edge for reasons of reducing backhaul and latency to varying degrees, while others can be moved between Edge and Center to offload from Edge or the Center. Determining the best option for a given use case can be tricky. - *How do constraints affect Edge architectures?* – One major criteria, which is often overlooked is that Edge, by its very nature, is defined by the constraints set by its environment and infrastructure. · *Edge Infrastructure and Platform issues* -- There is wide variability in infrastructure specs, hardware and tooling. Some factors that affect deployments include: · Node Size: from single CPU to multiple racks (e.g., hyperscalers) · Does Edge require special hardware, such as accelerators? - *Does Edge work when multi-clouds are required? *– Can the Edge support multiple platforms or does that quickly become a nightmare of mismatched tools and bad integration? - *Day 2 Operations of Edge deployments* – When a deployment can range from 10s of sites to thousands or even millions if you count IoT devices as Edge, how does deployment scale affect architecture, management and application decisions? -- [image: Verizon] <http://www.verizon.com/> *Beth Cohen* *DMTS - *NFV/SDN Network Product Strategy Verizon Business Group M 781.434.8553 [image: Facebook] <http://www.facebook.com/verizon> [image: Twitter] <http://twitter.com/verizon>

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