Data Compression w/ Edge node

caution

Currently, SENSR Edge node is in the beta support stage and available only on Ubuntu 20.04 with AMD64 architecture.

Background

SENSR, at its core, is a system that receives inputs from LiDAR and provides 3D perception services. The volumes of data produced by LiDARs can be significant and lead to network congestion to tackle these challenges, it becomes necessary to minimize the amound of data transmitted by LiDARs without impacting the quality of perception.

SENSR Edge pre-processes the data sent by LiDARs and trims the parts of the pointcloud that are not needed for the perception before sending the data to its correcponding Algo Node.

How it works

Edge node reduces the data bandwidth using 3 methods:

• Filtering
• Downsampling
• Data compression

The amount of data reduction is fully configurable and can be modified under the Edge node tab in the Algo node Parameters. More detailed information can be accessed from here.

How to use

1. In the cluster.json file, add the machine that will be used as a Edge node as follows:

        {
            "nodes": [
                ...
                {
                    "ip": "edge_node_computer_ip_address",
                    "user_name": "edge_node_computer_user_name",
                    "password": "edge_computer_password",
                    "is_master": false,
                    "supported_worker_apps": ["edge"],
                    "name": "edge_1"
                },
                ...
            ]
        }

2. Run the command sr-launcher-cli run install -f cluster.json --force
3. Recreate the Cluster and run SENSR.
4. Under the Algo node, add the Edge node that will transmit data to that particular Algo node.
5. Add the LiDAR. You need to tick Connect to Edge Node and select corresponding Edge Node that LiDAR will send the data to.

By following these steps, Algo nodes will get the data through Edge nodes with reduced data amount.