Edge-to-Edge Resource Discovery using Metadata Replication

Edge computing has been recently introduced as an intermediary between Internet of Things (IoT) deployments and the cloud, providing data or control facilities to participating IoT devices. This includes actively supporting IoT resource discovery, something particularly pertinent when building large- scale, distributed and heterogeneous IoT systems. Moreover, edge devices supporting resource discovery are required to meet the stringent requirements prevalent in IoT systems including high availability, low-latency, and privacy. To this end, we present a resource discovery platform for IoT resources situated at the edge of the network. Our approach aims at providing a seamless discovery process that is able to (i) extend the covered area by deploying additional edge nodes and (ii) assist in the development of new IoT applications that target already available resources. Within our proposed platform, devices located in a certain proximity connect and form an edge-to-edge network that we call an edge neighborhood - our edge-to-edge metadata replication platform enables participating devices to discover available resources. Our solution is characterized by absence of centralization, as edge nodes exchange metadata about available resources within their scope in a peer-to-peer manner.