Edge Enabled Systems

Abstract

Users of today have ever-increasing levels of technical skill with computing and communication technologies. For example, on the battlefield, some soldiers are capable of creating or modifying existing systems in response to needs that were not anticipated by the designers of the original systems. In a growing number of situations this ability is crucial, because the soldier must be able to adapt rapidly to a dynamically changing operating environment; thus the software must also be adaptable. Software architectures and software development methods must be created that enable user innovation “at the edge” so that users can be as effective as possible in the face of changing missions and unanticipated needs. In this paper, we describe the characteristics of edge systems and the edge organizations in which these systems operate, and make initial recommendations about how such systems and organizations can be created to serve the needs of users at the edge.