Edge Computing
Established: October 29, 2008
Microsoft product groups coined the term The Intelligent Edge. The Intelligent Edge is a capability that enables Microsoft customers to enjoy a seamless experience and compute capabilities wherever their data exists—in the cloud or offline. Microsoft is making it easier for developers to build apps that use edge technology, by open sourcing the Azure IoT Edge Runtime, which allows customers to modify the runtime and customize applications.
Collaborations
Video Analytics over 5G Project
Princeton University
Internet-enabled cameras pervade daily life, generating a huge amount of data, but most of the video they generate is transmitted over wires and analyzed offline with a human in the loop. As a result, the amount of coverage and level of application accuracy that today’s surveillance camera systems can provide is necessarily limited. Work has commenced both on scaling the stream processing behind video analytic systems and leveraging certain aspects of 5G technologies such as small cells. These ideas have in turn enabled exciting new applications for computing on the edge. The maturation of deep learning techniques and the complete 5G portfolio of technologies create exciting new opportunities to tackle even more challenging problems in video analytics.
This research is centered around Live Video Analytics (opens in new tab) occurring over a 5G network with multiple cameras and research program that leverages (a) The full suite of 5G technologies, including rapid mobility handover, small cells, and millimeter-wave (24 and 60 GHz) radio frequencies, and (b) Massive arrays of video cameras, backed by deep learning algorithms to process video jointly across the entire array of cameras. The use of 5G wireless links to each camera enables an unprecedented amount of wireless capacity to the edge devices, enabling buffering to be relegated to the edge device rather than situated onboard the camera
Living Edge Lab
Carnegie Mellon
Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft are collaborating on a joint effort to innovate in edge computing, an exciting field of research for intensive computing applications that require rapid response times in remote and low-connectivity environments.
By bringing artificial intelligence to the “edge,” devices such as connected vehicles, drones or factory equipment are able to quickly learn and respond to their environments, which is critical in scenarios like search and rescue, disaster recovery and safety.
To enable discovery in these areas and more, Microsoft will contribute edge computing products to Carnegie Mellon for use in its Living Edge Laboratory (opens in new tab), a testbed for exploring applications that generate large data volumes and require intense processing with near-instantaneous response times.