Mobile Transparent Computing: A Novel User-Centric Approach to Unify Device, Edge, and Cloud

Abstract

Advances in smart devices, wireless communication, and hierarchical distributed computing have rendered edge and cloud computing a firstclass development and usage platform for mobile or Internet of Things services and applications. Applications, such as smart cities, smart connected vehicles, smart health, smart grids, and smart homes, are now as common in mobile devices as they are in cloud-based systems. However, bringing cloud servers to the edge of a network still demands considerable effort to efficiently provide edge computing with mobility, location awareness, and low latency. In this work, we propose a novel user-centric computing paradigm called mobile transparent computing to unify resource management and code scheduling across different devices, edges, and clouds as a whole virtual system. On this basis, we design, implement, and evaluate a prototype system to demonstrate the significance and effectiveness of mobile transparent computing. We also discuss open issues for future work on mobile transparent computing.