Guest Editors' Introduction: Cloud Computing for Embedded Systems

h CLOUD COMPUTING HAS been one of the most important innovations in computer technologies and industry in recent years. Cloud computing changes the paradigm from owning and operating computers to renting computers on demand. Another important trend in the 21st century has been the pervasive deployment of embedded systems, from home appliances to environmental sensors, autonomous vehicles, and smart buildings. Embedded systems are often constrained by performance, storage capacity, and energy. In contrast, cloud computing provides high reliability and scalability, large storage capacity, and stable power from the power grid. Cloud computing and embedded systems are complementary to each another. Cloud servers can process large amounts of data, and much of the data may be acquired from the physical world using embedded systems as interfaces. This special issue includes three papers, examining three different angles integrating embedded systems and cloud computing. ‘‘The Swarm at the Edge of the Cloud,’’ by Lee et al., is an invited paper and describes a vision of how distributed sensors and cloud computing could be integrated. The sensors would be the ‘‘eyes, ears, hands, and feet’’ of the cloud. Many challenges arise in designing such a large-scale distributed system, for example, the large amount of data from the sensors, security, the interactions between cyber and physical systems, and privacy. This paper presents as architecture to design such a complex system. The paper also lists several applications that can benefit from such a system. ‘‘Middleware for IoT-Cloud Integration Across Application Domains,’’ by Huo et al., presents a middleware for Internet of Things (IoT) using Bluetooth Low Energy Technology. This middleware is a gateway between the IoT and the cloud and provides functions such as authentication and access control. ‘‘Cloud-Aided Design for Distributed Embedded Systems,’’ by Jung et al., presents a virtual execution platform for designing an embedded system using the cloud. It is possible to emulate the interactions of millions of embedded systems for image processing. These three papers represent three unique approaches combining the strength of embedded systems and cloud computing and will serve as references in designing future systems. h