International Journals of Advanced Research in

Computer Science and Software Engineering Research Article July

ISSN: 2277-128X (Volume-7, Issue-7) 2017

Fog Computing: A Primer

Matthew N. O. Sadiku, Mahamadou Tembely, and Sarhan M. Musa
Roy G. Perry College of Engineering, Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, TX 77446,
United States
DOI: 10.23956/ijarcsse/V7I7/01702

Abstract— Fog computing (FC) was proposed in 2012 by Cisco as the ideal computing model for providing real-time
computing services and storage to support the resource-constrained Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Thus, FC may
be regarded as the convergence of the IoT and the Cloud, combining the data-centric IoT services and pay-as-you-go
characteristics of clouds. This paper provides a brief introduction of fog computing.

Keywords— fog computing, edge computing, edge cloud, fog networking, fog-based applications.

I. INTRODUCTION
The term fog computing (FC) (also known as edge computing) was coined in 2012 by Cisco. FC is mainly
proposed for IoT applications with massive number of services and real-time requirements. Fog is in between the cloud
(data centers) and the ground, where devices are located. (Fog does not replace the traditional cloud but cooperates with
it.) Any device with computing, storage, and networking capabilities can be regarded as a fog node. Typical examples
of fog nodes include routers, switches, servers, machines, and video surveillance cameras.
Fog computing basically extends cloud computing and services to the edge of the network, such as portable
devices, smart objects, wireless sensors and other Internet of Things (IoT) devices, as illustrated in Figure 1 [1]. Its basic
goal is to improve efficiency and reduce the amount of data transported to the cloud for processing and storage. Compute
can now take place at the sensor level, and not mainly in a centralized data center. This adds flexibility as to where
computation can be placed. It also leads to the ability to react more quickly to events.

Figure 1. A view of the three-tier fog computing model [1].

II. BASIC FEATURES

Fog network forms a layer between the end user device and central cloud. Fog computing is an end-to-end
architecture that distributes computing, storage, control, and networking functions closer to the end user’s devices. Fog
is essentially an umbrella term that includes computation, communication, and control [2]. Several architectures have
been proposed for fog computing. A typical one is shown in Figure 2 [3].
Some of the characteristics of fog computing include [4, 5]:
(1) Edge location: FC supports deployment of the devices at the edge of the network. This minimizes latency. The
drift toward edge computing is driven by mobile computing. So location awareness is important in FC. This is
enabled by location verification protocols to serve location-sensitive applications such as connected vehicless,
wireless Sensors, and actuators networks.
(2) Mobility: FC supports mobility and real-time interactions. Fog applications must be able to communicate
directly with mobile devices.
(3) Interoperability: It requires high interoperability across fog service providers and federation between them. It
caters for heterogeneous networks like IoT.

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 Sadiku et al., International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering7(7)
ISSN(E): 2277-128X, ISSN(P): 2277-6451, DOI: 10.23956/ijarcsse/V7I7/01702, pp. 405-407
(4) Geographical distribution: Unlike cloud, the services and applications targeted by FC demand widely
distributed deployments. For example, FC delivers high quality streaming to mobile vehicles.
(5) Heterogeneity: Fog nodes consists of diverse devices and will be deployed in a wide variety of environments.
Fog computing heterogeneous nodes range from sensors to user devices to routers. Facilitating general purpose
computing on such a variety of is the vision of fog computing.
(6) Real-time interactions: Important fog applications involve real-time interactions rather than batch processing.
This gives fog computing an advantage over the cloud for mission critical and time-sensitive applications.

Figure 2 An architecture for fog computing [3].

III. APPLICATIONS
Since fog computing provides data, compute storage and application services to the end-user, it facilitates a new
breed of application and services. Fog computing finds applications is many areas including industrial automation,
cyber-manufacturing, transportation, and networks sensors [6] Popular fog computing applications include the Internet
of things, wireless sensor networks, smart grid, smart city, smart buildings, and smart factories.
 Internet of Things (IoT): Fog computing is introduced to bridge the gap between remote data centers and
Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Fog computing supports IoT, which enables digital devices to be connected to
each other. Fog devices are positioned between cloud and smart devices. Typical devices include phones,
wearable health monitoring devices, and wireless sensors.
 Smart Grid: Cisco promoted fog computing in the areas of smart grid, which is an electricity distribution
network, with smart meters deployed at various locations. Energy load balancing applications may run on
network edge devices (e.g., smart meters, micro-grids) that automatically switch to alternative energies. Each
microgrid can act as a fog device, and it frequently communicates with customers and occasionally with the
cloud.
 Smart Traffic Lights: Video cameras on the streets can automatically sense some cars. Smart streetlights can
interact with local sensors and detect presence of a pedestrian. When the sensor identify the movement of a
vehicle, they sends signals to make them react accordingly, creating the appropriate light.
 Smart Building: Fog devices and sensors will react to the data and take decisions such as lowering the
temperature or remove moisture from the air. They can wirelessly measure temperature, humidity, and gas
levels in a building.
 Health Care: Computation is a required element in most healthcare applications. There is a significant number
of computing tasks in healthcare that can benefit from fog computing concept. In order to monitor patients
effectivelye, sensors need to be wearable and wireless [7].
 Automated Vehicles: Fog computing can be integrated into smart vehicular networks. Vehicular fog computing
turns connected vehicles into mobile fog nodes and utilizes mobility of vehicles for providing cost-effective and
on-demand fog computing. This avoids the delay caused by multi-hop communication [8]. Typical applications
of vehicular fog computing include traffic light scheduling, parking facility management and traffic information
sharing [9].

IV. CHALLENGES AND ISSUES

FC shares some of the challenges of cloud computing. Users’ safety, security, and privacy concerns prevent
computation tasks to be completely moved to the cloud.
The privacy leakage of user information in FC environments, such as data, location, and usage, is attracting the
attention. The implementation of FC on the edge of network makes it more vulnerable to security threats. Data security

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 Sadiku et al., International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering7(7)
ISSN(E): 2277-128X, ISSN(P): 2277-6451, DOI: 10.23956/ijarcsse/V7I7/01702, pp. 405-407
is a major challenge especially when fog nodes and their data move frequently in its environment. Fog devices may be
compromised by many potential threats and may expose sensitive information. For security reasons, access control in
the form of authentication is an essential requirement for IoT devices [10]. Also, intrusion detection techniques may be
applied in fog computing.
Another challenge is that fog networking spans across several devices, systems and deployment domains, and
there is lack of a single standard. Overcoming this and other challenges requires a coordinated effort of major players in
industry and academia.

V. CONCLUSION
Fog computing is a new paradigm using both cloud computing developments and Internet of things devices. It
may be regarded as an extension of cloud computing services to the edge of the network and is supposed to decrease
latency and network congestion. It is not yet formalized; it is under research and development. It is envisaged tha fog
computing will enable computing directly at the edge of the network and deliver new applications and services for the
future Internet.
The OpenFog Consortium (https://www.openfogconsortium.org) is an organization comprising of major
industries (about 55) whose goal is to standardize and promote fog computing. On February 8, 2017, the Consortium
released the OpenFog Reference Architecture (RA), which is a 162- page document consisting of architecture
recommendations for anyone wishing to implement fog networks.

REFERENCES
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[6] “Fog computing,” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fog_computing
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[10] A. Alrawais et al., “Fog computing for the Internet of Things: security and privacy issues,” IEEE Internet
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Matthew N.O. Sadiku is a professor at Prairie View A&M University, Texas. He is the author of several books
and papers. He is a fellow of IEEE.
Mahamadou Tembely is a Ph.D student at Prairie View A&M University, Texas. He received the 2014
Outstanding MS Graduated Student award for the department of electrical and computer engineering. He is the author of
several papers.
Sarhan M. Musa is a professor in the Department of Engineering Technology at Prairie View A&M
University, Texas. He has been the director of Prairie View Networking Academy, Texas, since 2004. He is an LTD
Spring and Boeing Welliver Fellow.

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