Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research: Helping Define a New Edge Computing Paradigm

Abstract

The Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) program [1] aims to enable experimental wireless communications research across devices, communication techniques, networks, systems, and services conceived by the US academic and industrial wireless research community and deployed in partnership with local communities. PAWR seeks to accelerate the wireless innovation ecosystem, thereby enhancing broadband connectivity; enabling the emerging Internet of Things (IoT), edge computing and heterogeneous wireless connectivity technologies. Each research platform conceived under the PAWR program will enable at-scale experimentation by supporting the geographic size, technical diversity, and user density representative of a small city/community. From chipmakers to networking companies to software companies to application developers to vertical technology providers and users, the industry is devoting significant efforts to "moving past science experiments" into developing use cases for edge computing technologies. This calls for fundamental rethinking of computing and networking architectures that can disrupt existing business models and reshape industry landscapes. This talk details the edge computing ecosystem developed by the first two platforms; COSMOS [2] and POWDER [3]. We present the system architecture and components from radio clients, transport X-Haul, near edge cloud, and core cloud to rapidly develop and test Use-cases such as IoT Security via Edge AI, Smart City and Machine Vision, AR/VR and Automotive Edge (safety, navigation, automation + infotainment) on PAWR Platforms.