Applications such as holographic concerts are now emerging. However, their provisioning remains highly challenging. Requirements such as high bandwidth and ultra-low latency are still very challenging for the current network infrastructure. In-network computing (INC) is an emerging paradigm that enables the distribution of computing tasks across the network instead of computing on servers outside the network. It aims at tackling these two challenges. This article advocates the use of the INC paradigm to tackle holographic applications' high bandwidth and low latency challenges instead of the edge computing paradigm that has been used so far. Slicing brings flexibility to next-generation networks by enabling the deployment of applications/verticals with different requirements on the same network infrastructure. We propose an architecture that enables the provisioning of INC-enabled slices for holographic-type application deployment. The architecture is validated through a proof of concept and extensive simulations. Our experimental results show that INC significantly outperforms edge computing when it comes to these two key challenges. In addition, low jitter was maintained to preserve the hologram's stability.

翻译：全息音乐会等应用正在兴起，但其供给仍极具挑战性。高带宽与超低延迟等要求对当前网络基础设施而言依然难以实现。网络内计算（INC）是一种新兴范式，它允许将计算任务分布在全网执行，而非依赖网络外部服务器进行计算，旨在攻克这两大难题。本文主张采用INC范式解决全息应用的高带宽与低延迟挑战，而非沿用迄今使用的边缘计算范式。网络切片技术通过支持在同一网络基础设施上部署具有不同需求的应用/垂直行业，为下一代网络带来了灵活性。我们提出了一种支持为全息类应用部署供给INC赋能切片的架构，并通过概念验证与大规模仿真进行了验证。实验结果表明，在网络内计算应对这两项核心挑战时，其性能显著优于边缘计算。此外，系统维持了低抖动特性以确保全息图像的稳定性。