US Patent 11882174 Virtual machine as a service for an autonomous edge

Systems and methods are described for providing a virtual machine (“VM”) as a service. A user device can install a VM to enable itself as an edge node. The user device can then and use a portion of its computing resources to provide the service to the endpoint device by running the VM. In an example, an edge node can directly receive a request for a service from an endpoint device. The edge node can determine that it needs assistance from another device to jointly provide the service. Then another user device which is available to operate as an edge node can join the edge team.