  Extreme edge computing (EEC) refers to the endmost part of edge computing
wherein computational tasks and edge services are deployed only on extreme edge
devices (EEDs). EEDs are consumer or user-owned devices that offer
computational resources, which may consist of wearable devices, personal mobile
devices, drones, etc. Such devices are opportunistically or naturally present
within the proximity of other user devices. Hence, utilizing EEDs to deploy
edge services or perform computational tasks fulfills the promise of edge
computing of bringing the services and computation as close as possible to the
end-users. However, the lack of knowledge and control over the EEDs
computational resources raises a red flag, since executing the computational
tasks successfully becomes doubtful. To this end, we aim to study the EEDs
randomness from the computational perspective, and how reliable is an EED in
terms of executing the tasks on time. Specifically, we provide a reliability
model for the EEDs that takes into account the probabilistic nature of the
availability of the EEDs' computational resources. Moreover, we study the
reliability of executing different types of computational tasks in EEC systems
that are distributed across the EEDs. Lastly, we carry out experimental results
to analyze the EEDs and the EEC systems' reliability behavior in different
scenarios.
