IPA IP 2023 Question 71
A question IPA Japan published in 令和5年度 ITパスポート試験 公開問題 問71, translated into English. ITPEC is based on the same exams.
Same question on ITPEC: Oct 2025 Q34
Which of the following is the most appropriate description of edge computing in an IoT system?
Explanation
Processing as much data as possible close to the IoT devices — edge computing keeps the load on the IoT servers down as the number of devices grows.
Sending every sensor reading to a central server adds network delay and load that grow with each new device. Edge computing places processing at the edge of the network, in a gateway or local server beside the devices, to filter, aggregate or act on the data at once; only results or summaries travel on to the server. That also suits real-time uses such as factory control and vehicles.
Answer (a)
Why not others:
- •(b) — blocks of transactions chained by the hash of the previous block, so tampering is hard to hide, is blockchain
- •(c) — resources aggregated in a data center and used remotely over the network is cloud computing, the centralised model edge computing offloads
- •(d) — a computer acquiring knowledge and rules from data without explicit programming is machine learning
Key rule: Edge computing is about where processing happens, near the data source for low latency and less traffic; the cloud centralises processing for scale, and the two are usually combined.
System Component · AI-written, may contain errors
This question comes from the past questions IPA Japan publishes, translated into English by ITPEC Practice. ITPEC Practice is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with IPA or ITPEC. See the original paper (PDF) or Report an issue.