EMPYREAN introduces a groundbreaking vision for an intelligent, AI-driven IoT-edge-cloud continuum, seamlessly integrating IoT devices, robots, and computational resources into collaborative collectives called Associations. These Associations dynamically form and operate across diverse infrastructures, spanning multiple providers, geographical regions, and connectivity types, creating a unified and interconnected ecosystem.
At the heart of EMPYREAN’s architecture lies an AI-enabled control and management plane, which autonomously balances computing tasks, optimizes resource allocation, and ensures performance and resiliency across the platform. By leveraging advanced cloud-native technologies, deep learning techniques, and real-time telemetry data, EMPYREAN empowers intelligent workload orchestration and self-adaptive system management.
Key Features of the EMPYREAN Architecture

The Service Layer encompasses components that facilitate the development of Association-native applications, offering robust support for application-level adaptations, interoperability, elasticity, and scalability across the IoT-edge-cloud continuum. This layer focuses on key aspects such as: (a) workflow design and management, simplifying the creation and orchestration of hyper-distributed applications, (b) cloud-native unikernel application development, supporting lightweight, secure, and efficient deployment models, and (c) dataflow description, enabling precise and scalable data management within applications.
The Association Management Layer dynamically manages Associations within the IoT-edge-cloud continuum. By forming resource federations, it enables seamless collaboration, resource sharing, and data distribution across various segments within the continuum. Together with the Multi-Cluster Orchestration Layer, it is central to EMPYREAN’s distributed and autonomous management, establishing a resilient Association-based continuum.
The Multi-Cluster Orchestration Layer handles service orchestration and resource management across EMPYREAN’s disaggregated infrastructure. Using autonomous, distributed decision-making mechanisms, it orchestrates dynamic, hyper-distributed applications while enabling self-driven adaptations. Multiple instances of this layer’s components provide decentralized operation, optimize resource utilization, and ensure scalability, resiliency, energy efficiency, and high service quality.
The Resource Management Layer unifies the management of IoT, edge, and cloud platforms under the EMPYREAN platform. It integrates software mechanisms for both platform-level scheduling (e.g., EMPYREAN Controller, AI-enabled Workload Autoscaling) and low-level mechanisms (e.g., Unikernel Deployment). This layer operates within Kubernetes or K3s clusters and offers modularity, simplifying the integration of new hardware and software.
The Data Management and Interconnection Layer ensures dynamic communication and secure data storage between IoT devices and computing resources. Operating at both cluster and Association levels, it provides flexible and scalable data management and seamless integration of IoT, edge, and cloud resources. It also supports distributed operation, facilitating efficient operation in complex, distributed environments.
The Security, Trust, and Privacy Layer ensures secure access, privacy, and trusted execution across the EMPYREAN platform. Operating at both the cluster and Association levels, it delivers distributed trust services, enables secure and trusted execution environments, and provides controlled data access for guaranteeing data confidentiality and continuous validation of trust among entities.
What’s Next?
Stay tuned for upcoming project deliverables, which will be available on our website! They will provide deeper insights into:
- EMPYREAN Architecture – Detailed analysis of components and layers
- EMPYREAN Components – Presentation of technical innovations and developments
- System operation flows – Detailed breakdowns of platform interactions.
- Use case applications – How EMPYREAN’s architecture enables real-world innovations.
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