Serverless Edge Computing for 5G Edge Devices

尽管自1980年以来一直在努力提高事故率（AFR），但与综合行业平均水平（1.5）相比，建筑业是英国最危险的行业之一（2.4 AFR）。每年，工人遭受6.1万起非致命伤害和39起致命伤害，造成162亿英镑的损失\[HSE-2021\]。通过与英国市场领先的建筑公司Taylor Wimpey的讨论，我们明确了利用连接边缘技术进一步减少AFR、改善工作场所健康与安全及相关成本的愿望/需求。方法包括：*物联网智能设备/可穿戴设备监测工人的健康状况，并实时提醒健康问题，例如生理/环境数据、温度/心率/步数/振动/噪音。*连接传感器监测现场变量，如位置/禁区/温度/压力/灰尘颗粒，挥发性有机化合物/化学品发送数据警报，以确保工人不暴露于有害的情况或材料。边缘设备需要高质量的互联网连接，因为警报/检测需要实时处理，以便采取有效行动，最大限度地减少健康和安全问题的影响。在建筑工地和其他工业环境中，缺乏可靠的连接是采用的主要障碍。建筑公司还需要确保个人数据得到保护。现有的基于云的边缘计算解决方案需要复杂的设置和配置，产生潜在的数据安全问题，并且不够动态，无法促进实时数据处理并实现所需的延迟（5ms）。EMS和拉夫堡大学正在开发一种新型的无服务器边缘FaaS（功能即服务）引擎（ServerlessEdge），以优化现有的i-MO路由器，使连接的边缘设备能够在传统的低连接环境中实时运行，而无需部署和支持额外的现场IT基础设施或集中服务。该引擎在边缘设备上运行和终止无服务器功能，调度任务，管理和协调资源，将延迟从30-50ms降至5ms。

Despite efforts to improve accident frequency rate(AFR) since 1980, construction is one of the most dangerous sectors in the UK(2.4 AFR) compared to combined industry averages(1.5). Each year, workers experience 61,000 non-fatal and 39 fatal injuries, costing £16.2bn\[HSE-2021\].Through discussions with UK market-leading construction firm Taylor Wimpey, we have identified a clear desire/need to utilise connected edge technologies to further reduce AFR and improve workplace health&safety and associated costs. Approaches include:* IoT smart devices/wearables to monitor worker health and real-time alerting of wellness issues, e.g. physiological/environmental data, temperature/heart-rate/steps/vibration/noise.* Connected sensors to monitor site variables e.g. location/exclusion zones/temperature/pressure/dust particles, and volatile organic compounds/chemicals to send data alerts to ensure workers aren't exposed to harmful situations or materials.Edge devices require high-quality internet connections as alerts/detections need to be processed in real-time to enable effective action to minimise the impact of health&safety issues. On construction sites and other industrial environments, the lack of reliable connectivity is the main barrier to adoption. Construction firms also need to ensure that personal data is protected.Existing cloud-based solutions for edge computing require complex set-up and configuration, create potential data security issues, and are not dynamic enough to facilitate real-time data processing and achieve required latency(5ms).EMS and Loughborough University are developing a novel serverless edge FaaS (Function as a Service) engine(ServerlessEdge) to optimise existing i-MO routers to enable connected edge devices to operate onsite in real-time in traditionally low connectivity environments without the need to deploy and support additional on-site IT infrastructure or centralised services.The engine runs and terminates serverless functions on edge devices, schedules tasks, and manages and orchestrates resources to minimise latency from 30-50ms to 5ms.