Cloud, Fog or Edge: Where to Compute?

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the performance and carbon footprint of various applications across cloud, fog, and edge computing environments to guide optimal application placement decisions.

Contribution

It provides a detailed empirical evaluation of application performance and environmental impact across the computing continuum using real-world testbeds.

Findings

Edge computing reduces latency for certain applications.

Cloud computing offers higher computational power but with increased energy consumption.

Optimal placement depends on application requirements and sustainability considerations.

Abstract

The computing continuum extends the high-performance cloud data centers with energy-efficient and low-latency devices close to the data sources located at the edge of the network. However, the heterogeneity of the computing continuum raises multiple challenges related to application management. These include where to offload an application - from the cloud to the edge - to meet its computation and communication requirements. To support these decisions, we provide in this article a detailed performance and carbon footprint analysis of a selection of use case applications with complementary resource requirements across the computing continuum over a real-life evaluation testbed.