Towards community-scale resilience via repurposable computing continuum infrastructures

Smart cities rely on Cyber Physical Human Systems (CPHS) for efficiently delivering critical services (water, electricity, weather, traffic, etc.) to the community. These community-scale CHPS typically rely on an edge-fog-cloud computing continuum spanning multiple abstraction levels, and are typically purpose-built to deliver these services. This article makes the case that these siloed CPHS can be repurposed to deliver additional services in the face of disasters and unexpected events, raising the overall resilience of these community-scale infrastructures. We use two motivating CPHS case studies–information exchange for healthcare resilience (NSF project CAREDEX) and community-scale urban mobility through end-to-end orchestration (EU project MYRTUS) – as exemplars to tease out the opportunities and challenges faced in repurposing these CHPS in extreme events such as disasters. We highlight some of the key technologies required to facilitate repurposing, summarize their current status, and discuss ongoing efforts and future challenges for achieving community-scale CPHS resilience.