Sustainable edge computing with mobile crowd computing: a proof-of-concept with a smart HVAC use case

The widespread adoption of utility-based real-time applications has placed the necessity of widescale deployment of edge computing infrastructure. Crowdsourced edge computing is deemed a suitable way out. On the other hand, a collection of today’s powerful smart mobile devices (SMDs) can cumulatively offer high-performance computing. The public-owned SMDs are utilized opportunistically to form a dynamic ad-hoc computing grid known as mobile crowd computing (MCC). This paper aspires to establish a proof-of-concept for the feasibility and use of MCC as a sustainable edge computing solution (MCC-edge). A typical smart HVAC system of an office building has been considered for the experiment case. We aim to process the HVAC data in real-time using the MCC-edge setup within the building for auto adjustment of the AC controller and error notifications. To maintain the ideal comfort level of the occupants, we present an extensive calculation using the dew point and heat index of the room. A high-level layered architecture of the MCC-edge for HVAC is presented along with a general framework of the MCC-edge. We report the module-wise design and implementation procedures with exhaustive details. The performance of MCC-edge is statistically compared with the commercial edge and cloud computing solutions in terms of cost, energy consumption, latency, and environmental impact, showing a significant advantage over the two. Every procedural detail of each module's design, development, and implementation is meticulously presented, which would aid interested readers and researchers in rebuilding such an application.