Computation Offloading From Edge to Equipment for Smart Manufacturing

In smart manufacturing, data management systems are built with a multi-layer architecture, in which the most significant layers are the edge and the cloud. The edge layer renders support to data analysis that genuinely demands low latency. Cloud platforms store vast amounts of data while performing extensive computations such as machine learning and big data analysis. This type of data management system has a limitation rooted in the fact that all data needs to be transferred from the equipment layer to the edge layer in order to perform all data analyses. Even worse, data transferring adds delays to computation processes in smart manufacturing. We investigate an offloading strategy to shift a selection of computation tasks towards the equipment layer. Our computation offloading mechanism opts for smart manufacturing tasks that are not only light weight but also have no need to save data at the edge/cloud end. In our empirical study, we demonstrate that the edge layer can judiciously offload computing tasks to the equipment layer, which curtails computing latency and slashes the amount of transferred data during smart manufacturing process. Our experimental results confirm that our offloading strategy offers the capability for data analysis computing in real-time at the equipment level - an array of smart devices is slated to speed up the data analysis process in semiconductor manufacturing.