NEPHELE on IEEE-ICC2025
Montreal, Canada

The paper "Joint Placement and Scheduling for Time-Sensitive Applications in Edge Computing" by I. Sakellariou, G. Papathanail and P. Papadimitriou from UOM with acknowledgement to NEPHELE was accepted by the IEEE International Conference on Communications (IEEE-ICC 2025). The paper was presented on Monday, June 9, 8:00 - 9:30 AM (local time) in session NGNI-04: Interactive-Edge and Fog Computing at the Exhibition Hall of the Palais of Congrès in Montreal, Canada.

The abstract of this paper explains that in the dawn of the 6G era, edge computing environments have to cope with the increasing demands of next-generation cloud-native applications, such as time-sensitive applications. In this context, the application-graph placement problem is further exacerbated by the need to efficiently schedule time-sensitive traffic in order to meet stringent latency or other Quality of Service (QoS) requirements. This time-sensitive aspect, which is often overlooked, raises the need for a unified placement and scheduling approach.

To this end, this paper proposes a holistic approach to the placement and scheduling problem for time-sensitive applications within edge computing facilities. In particular, the authors employ Constraint Programming (CP) to compute efficient solutions in a single step, avoiding the limitations stemming from the sequential execution of separate placement and scheduling solvers. This solution is compliant with industrial Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) standards (i.e., IEEE 802.1 Qbv). A comparative evaluation among a range of CP variants sheds lights into various aspects, such as the gains stemming from the use of search heuristics.

The 2025 IEEE International Conference on Communications (Communications Technologies 4Good) featured a technical program including 13 symposia and a variety of tutorials and workshops, and an industry program with keynotes and panels from research, industry and government leaders, business and industry panels, and technological exhibits. 

Authors of selected papers have been invited to submit an extended version of their works for fast-track review and possible publication in the IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society.