CNS Core: Small: Enabling Real-time, Scalable and Secure Collaborative Intelligence on the Edge

随着嵌入式系统的激增，多核计算设备使得计算从集中式云迁移到分布式边缘平台的趋势成为可能。这一趋势在智能城市的智能基础设施中产生了新的产品和服务。然而，随着实时工作负载在边缘计算平台上的执行，性能瓶颈从边缘云通信转移到片上通信。系统的实时性能对片上网络(NoC)的系统架构提出了新的挑战，即可扩展性和安全性。这些挑战与跨不同用户的动态数据分布有关。该项目旨在设计一个实时的、可扩展的片上网络来实现实时协作学习算法。关键的策略是协调系统架构和算法协同设计，以开拓边缘计算平台上的新设计空间。为了应对研究挑战，将开发一个全面的架构，通过软硬件协同设计来解决这些多方面的问题，该架构包括三个关键推动力：(I)设计互联，消除片上网络上的不可预测性障碍；(Ii)为协作学习系统建立可扩展的虚拟事务环境，以保证所有实时事务任务能够在正确的时间完成；(3)根据新提议的架构，在EDGE平台上实施实时和安全的多目标跟踪系统。这项拟议的研究将使用物理平台Equinox进行评估，室内和室外研究超出模拟范围。这项研究将开辟研究和教育机会的新维度。特别是，该项目的成功将提供一个硬件/软件包，可以增强边缘的实时协同计算。由此产生的InterConnect和Equinox是现成的平台，将允许专家/研究人员轻松审查他们关于协作学习和实时边缘计算的研究设计，从而弥合不同研究领域之间的差距。教育工作将致力于(I)本科生和研究生课程的设计，(Ii)初中生和教师夏令营的发展，(Iii)扩大韦恩州立大学在计算和工程方面的参与。在这个项目中开发的数据、代码、模拟器和平台将在整个项目期间和项目结束后至少五年内公开提供。该项目库将在韦恩州立大学的网站(http://zheng.eng.wayne.edu/index.html))和CAR实验室的网站上提供(https://www.thecarlab.org/.This奖反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并已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。

With the proliferation of embedded systems, multicore computing devices enable the recent trend of moving computation from the centralized cloud to distributed edge platforms. This trend yields new products and services across smart infrastructures in smart cities. However, as real-time workloads are executed at the edge computing platforms, the performance bottleneck is transferred from the edge-cloud communication to on-chip communication. The system’s real-time performance faces new system-architectural challenges for the Network-On-Chip (NoC), which are scalability and security. These challenges are hinged with dynamic data distributions across different users. This project aims to design a real-time and scalable NoC for implementing real-time collaborative learning algorithms. The key strategy is to orchestrate a system-architecture and algorithm co-design to explore the new design space on the edge computing platform.To cope with the research challenges, a comprehensive architecture will be developed to address these multifaceted problems through a hardware and software co-design, which consists of three key thrusts: (i) designing an interconnect, which will eliminate non-predictability barrier on the NoC; (ii) establishing a scalable virtualized transaction environment for the collaborative learning system to guarantee that all the real-time transaction tasks can complete at the right time; (iii) implementing a real-time and secure multi-target tracking system on the edge platform in light of the newly proposed architecture. The proposed research will be evaluated using the physical platform Equinox, with indoor and outdoor studies beyond simulation.This research will open a new dimension of research and educational opportunities. In particular, the success of the project will provide a hardware/software package that can enhance the real-time collaborative computing on the edge. The resulted interconnect and Equinox are ready-to-use platforms that will allow experts/researchers to easily examine their research designs regarding collaborative learning and real-time edge computing, thereby sealing the gap between different research fields. Educational efforts will be devoted to (i) curriculum design for the undergraduate and graduate program, (ii) summer camp development for middle and high school students, and teachers, (iii) broadening participation in computing and engineering, at the Wayne State University.The data, codes, simulators, and platforms developed in this project will be made available publicly throughout the duration of the project and for at least five years after the end of the project. The project repository will be available on Wayne State University website (http://zheng.eng.wayne.edu/index.html) and the website of the CAR Lab (https://www.thecarlab.org/.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.