Tired of sluggish flight booking systems? This episode explores a research paper proposing a fix: combining edge computing with a microservices architecture for airline reservations. Learn how moving time-sensitive tasks like seat availability checks closer to the user can dramatically reduce latency, potentially by 60%, enhancing responsiveness. We discuss the conceptual framework using Kubernetes for orchestration and Kafka for real-time data synchronization between distributed edge nodes and the central cloud. Discover the simulated performance gains in latency and throughput reported by the researchers. We also unpack the significant challenge of maintaining data consistency in such a distributed system. Explore how this edge-enabled microservice approach might apply beyond airlines to other real-time, latency-sensitive domains.   Read the original paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/2411.12650v1 Music: 'The Insider - A Difficult Subject'