Towards a Reference Component Model of Edge-Cloud Continuum

Edge-cloud continuum (ECC) is a novel paradigm that seeks to blend the worlds of cloud computing and IoT into a continuous ecosystem capable of providing access to a range of previously impossible applications with significantly improved quality of service. However, while using the term ECC becomes increasingly common, there is still no clear and commonly accepted consensus on what the term entails and which properties the ECC environment must possess. Consequently, there is a lack of tools and examples for reasoning about applications in ECC and their specific properties. In this paper, we present the results of our literature study aimed at identifying the most common properties ascribed to ECC. Based on this, we outline a reference component model that can serve as a tool for reasoning about ECC systems and their properties.