Pico-Cloud: Cloud Infrastructure for Tiny Edge Devices

TL;DR

Pico-Cloud presents a micro-edge cloud architecture on minimal hardware like Raspberry Pi Zero, enabling local, low-latency, and low-power containerized services for diverse edge applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel decentralized edge cloud architecture tailored for ultra-minimal hardware, with integrated virtualization and orchestration capabilities.

Findings

Cost-effective and sustainable platform for lightweight workloads

Supports diverse use cases including rural connectivity and edge AI

Enables local operation with low latency and power consumption

Abstract

This paper introduces the Pico-Cloud, a micro-edge cloud architecture built on ultra-minimal hardware platforms such as the Raspberry Pi Zero and comparable single-board computers. The Pico-Cloud delivers container-based virtualization, service discovery, and lightweight orchestration directly at the device layer, enabling local operation with low latency and low power consumption without reliance on centralized data centers. We present its architectural model, outline representative use cases including rural connectivity, educational clusters, and edge AI inference, and analyze design challenges in computation, networking, storage, and power management. The results highlight Pico-Clouds as a cost-effective, decentralized, and sustainable platform for lightweight distributed workloads at the network edge.