A Dynamic Distributed Scheduler for Computing on the Edge

Edge computing is crucial for IoT applications, especially those needing quick, private data handling. However, these applications are resource-intensive, and edge computing resources are limited compared to cloud capabilities. Efficiently using these limited resources is essential to meet all application demands, including latency, privacy, and cost. Due to the dynamic and hybrid nature of IoT environments, static scheduling systems often falls short in meeting these diverse constraints. This paper describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of a dynamic distributed scheduler for the edge. This scheduler schedules the execution of various computing tasks across all computing resources available at the edge in order to satisfy the diverse constraints of an IoT application. The key characteristic of this scheduler is that it constantly monitors the current state of the IoT infrastructure and dynamically adjusts the scheduling of various computing tasks based on the current environmental context as well as the current computing and network conditions. The scheduler utilizes a predictive profiling method to manage the hybrid and variable nature of edge computing resources and tasks. A prototype of this scheduler has been implemented and the paper demonstrates its practicality via an augmented reality application.