CAREER: Towards Fault-tolerant Edge Computing for Cyber-Physical Systems: Distributed Primitives for Coordination under Cyber Attacks

边缘计算是一种新兴的范式，它通过在用户或用户附近分配一系列(边缘)服务器来提供必要的网络、存储和计算服务，从而扩展了云计算。网络物理系统(CP)将物理设备连接到互联网并相互连接。本研究探讨了边缘计算与CPS的结合，即基于边缘的CPS。它引起了学术界和工业界的极大关注，因为它有望从根本上改变人们与工程系统交互的方式。一个重要的元素--容错分布式原语的研究--在文献中仍然缺失。这项研究的重点是分布式共识原语，它允许一组节点在出现各种故障和网络攻击时作为一个连贯的实体工作。具体地说，有三个相互关联的任务：(I)识别基于边缘的CPS的基本性质、限制和权衡；(Ii)设计能够在不断变化的条件和不同的网络攻击下自动适应的算法，以保持良好的性能；以及(Iii)设计和实现一个真实的模拟器来研究实际场景下的性能。预期的结果将为基于边缘的CPS提供高效、容错的服务，让CPS应用实现更多创新。这项研究有望通过确定一套用于设计分布式容错原语的原则、容错工具和分析来提高知识状态。这项工作将强调允许实际实施的模型和原语，并计划现实地展示其容错和性能优势。边缘计算和CPS有望成为下一代基础设施的关键组件，因此基于边缘的CPS容错可以产生大规模的效益。相反，由于缺乏基础性理解而错失的改进机会可能会产生重大的业绩和容错后果。这项研究通过确定权衡和限制来帮助解决这些问题。拟议的研究还计划开发新的关于分布式系统的教学材料，PI计划通过波士顿学院的课程和向公众提供的在线教程来教授这些材料。此外，研究和推广工作将通过提供原则来帮助工业界和学术界为基于边缘的CP设计容错基元；增加学术界和工业界之间的伙伴关系；让妇女、残疾人和代表性不足的群体参与STEM；以及增加公众的科学素养和公众对科学和技术的参与，从而造福社会。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Edge computing is an emerging paradigm that extends cloud computing by allocating a range of (edge) servers at or near the user to provide necessary networking, storage, and computing services. Cyber-physical systems (CPS) connect physical devices to the Internet and to each other. This research explores the marriage between edge computing and CPS, namely edge-based CPS. It has attracted a tremendous amount of attention from both academia and industry because it is expected to fundamentally change the way people interact with engineered systems. One essential element –the study of fault-tolerant distributed primitives– is still missing in the literature. This research is focused on distributed consensus primitives that allow a collection of nodes to work as a coherent entity in the presence of various failures and cyberattacks. Concretely, there are three interrelated tasks: (i) identifying fundamental properties, limitations, and trade-offs in the context of edge-based CPS; (ii) designing algorithms that automatically adapt under changing conditions and varying cyberattacks to maintain good performance; and (iii) designing and implementing a realistic simulator to study performance under practical scenarios. The expected outcomes will enable efficient and fault-tolerant services for edge-based CPS, allowing more innovation in CPS applications. This research is expected to advance the state of knowledge by identifying a set of principles, fault-tolerance tools, and analyses for designing distributed fault-tolerant primitives. The work will emphasize models and primitives that allow for practical implementation, with plans for realistic demonstrations of their fault-tolerance and performance advantages. Edge computing and CPS are expected to be key components of next-generation infrastructure, so making edge-based CPS fault-tolerant can yield large-scale benefits. Conversely, missed opportunities for improvements caused by a lack of foundational understanding could have significant performance and fault-tolerance consequences. This research helps address these issues by identifying trade-offs and limitations. The proposed research also plans to develop new pedagogical material on distributed systems that the PI plans to teach, both through courses at Boston College and in online tutorials made available to the public. In addition, the research and outreach work will benefit society by providing principles to help industry and academia design fault-tolerant primitives for edge-based CPS; increasing partnerships between academia and industry; involving women, persons with disabilities, and underrepresented groups in STEM; and increasing public scientific literacy and public engagement with science and technology.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.