Virtualizing the Edge: Needs, Opportunities and Trends

Abstract

The recent advances in fog and edge computing are driving the need to identify what a component at the edge should be. Recognized the wide heterogeneity at the edge, it is with no doubt that different hardware characteristics may be found at the edge devices, thus fueling the need to identify what is the set of resources a potential fog node must have. However, this question is not so easy to answer since some discussions are yet active on what a fog node should be. Beyond the insights about the fog node concept, it looks reasonable and certainly mandatory to overcome the envisioned diversity and heterogeneity at the edge by adopting virtualization as a key strategy to manage resources at the edge. Consequently, in this paper, we analyze possible virtualization strategies, revisit what has been done in cloud computing and discuss potential trends to be deployed in fog computing aligned to the main challenges a tentative fog node is supposed to take over.