Resource Breadcrumbs: Discovering Edge Computing Resources Over Named Data Networking

Edge computing over Named Data Networking (NDN) is expected to be a promising approach for the deployment of applications such as connected cars and virtual or augmented reality. In conventional edge computing frameworks over NDN, computing request packets are not forwarded based on the resource availability status of the edge execution nodes (e.g., CPU and memory utilization). This may result in requests reaching fully loaded nodes that cannot handle these requests. To address this issue, this paper proposes a resource discovery scheme for edge computing over NDN. In this scheme, each execution node distributes its own resource availability status within its vicinity via scoped-flooding. Using this information, requests are guided toward available nodes that can satisfy the requirements of the requests. Moreover, the nodes attach their status to the computed response packets and distribute the status to each node along the response paths. Our extensive simulations show that the proposed scheme helps request packets to effectively discover available edge execution nodes.