ScalEdge: A framework for scalable edge computing in Internet of things–based smart systems

Edge computing brings down storage, computation, and communication services from the cloud server to the network edge, resulting in low latency and high availability. The Internet of things (IoT) devices are resource-constrained, unable to process compute-intensive tasks. The convergence of edge computing and IoT with computation offloading offers a feasible solution in terms of performance. Besides these, computation offload saves energy, reduces computation time, and extends the battery life of resource constrain IoT devices. However, edge computing faces the scalability problem, when IoT devices in large numbers approach edge for computation offloading requests. This research article presents a three-tier energy-efficient framework to address the scalability issue in edge computing. We introduced an energy-efficient recursive clustering technique at the IoT layer that prioritizes the tasks based on weight. Each selected task with the highest weight value offloads to the edge server for execution. A lightweight client–server architecture affirms to reduce the computation offloading overhead. The proposed energy-efficient framework for IoT algorithm makes efficient computation offload decisions while considering energy and latency constraints. The energy-efficient framework minimizes the energy consumption of IoT devices, decreases computation time and computation overhead, and scales the edge server. Numerical results show that the proposed framework satisfies the quality of service requirements of both delay-sensitive and delay-tolerant applications by minimizing energy and increasing the lifetime of devices.