The objectives of this project are three-fold: (1) identify public safety application challenges; (2) brainstorm the initial solutions to technical challenges in edge computing in general and public safety applications in particular; and (3) form the team and prepare for a large proposal. The identified research challenges call for solutions in all of the components of an edge computing platform. Edge computing poses a vastly different set of research challenges due to its distinct infrastructure. We envision several new technologies will be developed to enable various applications to run on the developed platform with guaranteed efficiency and safety. New theory on distributed computing and scheduling/allocation algorithms and systems science in better understanding the new systems will contribute to the body of the knowledge base in computer science. The identified public safety applications will exemplify and capture the essence of the core research in edge computing. They will illustrate a practical and comprehensive setting for people to explore the challenging problems in edge computing without losing the touch of reality.
Edge computing is envisioned to enable many applications in addition to the cloud computing paradigm. Developing such an edge computing system will shed light on the design and deployment of similar systems in the industry. The research results will be valuable to many practitioners in edge computing. The identified application specifications will be useful to many researchers, for them to understand problem settings and build new solutions. Forming a team will harness the collective mind of different expertise and make much broader impacts on the scientific development. Recruiting a team of scientists will also stimulate and enhance the research, education, and research result dissemination of edge computing in the local community of each participant.
