Network–Cloud–AI Convergence and Edge Computing

Overview

In order to avoid ambigui1es, we first introduce several working definitions related to cloud infrastructures. These defini1ons are not intended to be universal but rather correspond to the terminology adopted in this document.

Cloud: Any system in which the services or applica1ons are decoupled from both the access mechanisms and the underlying resources used to host them, including their physical location.

Large Data Centers: Data centers deployed as dedicated facilities or campuses (multiple buildings), which may in some cases host several hundred thousand servers.

MEC (Mobile / Mul6-access Edge Computing): Small data centers deployed within the points of presence of telecommunica1ons operators.

Edge / Far-Edge Computing: The use of computa1onal resources embedded in connected devices (such as vehicles, smartphones, or even much smaller devices) to execute func1ons following a cloud-like opera1onal model.

Over the past decade, cloud infrastructures have progressively extended beyond large centralized data centers to incorporate MEC nodes, edge resources, and far-edge devices.