Most Cited Article of 2017: Fog of Everything: Energy-Efficient Networked Computing Architectures, Research Challenges, and a Case Study

Fog computing (FC) and Internet of Everything (IoE) are two emerging technological paradigms that, to date, have been considered standing-alone. However, because of their complementary features, we expect that their integration can foster a number of computing and network-intensive pervasive applications under the incoming realm of the future Internet. Motivated by this consideration, the goal of this position paper is fivefold. First, we review the technological attributes and platforms proposed in the current literature for the standing-alone FC and IoE paradigms. Second, by leveraging some use cases as illustrative examples, we point out that the integration of the FC and IoE paradigms may give rise to opportunities for new applications in the realms of the IoE, Smart City, Industry 4.0, and Big Data Streaming, while introducing new open issues. Third, we propose a novel technological paradigm, the Fog of Everything (FoE) paradigm, that integrates FC and IoE and then we detail the main building blocks and services of the corresponding technological platform and protocol stack. Fourth, as a proof-of-concept, we present the simulated energy-delay performance of a small-scale FoE prototype, namely, the V-FoE prototype. Afterward, we compare the obtained performance with the corresponding one of a benchmark technological platform, e.g., the V-D2D one. It exploits only device-to-device links to establish inter-thing “ad hoc” communication. Last, we point out the position of the proposed FoE paradigm over a spectrum of seemingly related recent research projects.

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SmartCityWare: A Service-Oriented Middleware for Cloud and Fog Enabled Smart City Services

Smart cities are becoming a reality. Various aspects of modern cities are being automated and integrated with information and communication technologies to achieve higher functionality, optimized resources utilization, and management, and improved quality of life for the residents. Smart cities rely heavily on utilizing various software, hardware, and communication technologies to improve the operations in areas, such as healthcare, transportation, energy, education, logistics, and many others, while reducing costs and resources consumption. One of the promising technologies to support such efforts is the Cloud of Things (CoT). CoT provides a platform for linking the cyber parts of a smart city that are executed on the cloud with the physical parts of the smart city, including residents, vehicles, power grids, buildings, water networks, hospitals, and other resources. Another useful technology is Fog Computing, which extends the traditional Cloud Computing paradigm to the edge of the network to enable localized and real-time support for operating-enhanced smart city services. However, proper integration and efficient utilization of CoT and Fog Computing is not an easy task. This paper discusses how the service-oriented middleware (SOM) approach can help resolve some of the challenges of developing and operating smart city services using CoT and Fog Computing. We propose an SOM called SmartCityWare for effective integration and utilization of CoT and Fog Computing. SmartCityWare abstracts services and components involved in smart city applications as services accessible through the service-oriented model. This enhances integration and allows for flexible inclusion and utilization of the various services needed in a smart city application. In addition, we discuss the implementation and experimental issues of SmartCityWare and demonstrate its use through examples of smart city applications.

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