A Review of Fog Computing Concept, Architecture, Application, Parameters and Challenges

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) has become an integral part of our daily lives, growing exponentially from a facility to a necessity. IoT has been utilized extensively through cloud computing and has proven an excellent technology for deploying in various fields. The data generated by the IoT devices gets transmitted to the cloud for processing and storage. However, with this approach, there are specific issues like latency, energy, computation resources availability, bandwidth, heterogeneity, storage, and network failure. To overcome these obstacles, fog computing is utilized as a middle tier. Fog computing gathers and processes the generated data closer to the user end before transmitting it to the cloud. This paper aims to conduct a structured review of the current state of fog computing and its architectures deployed across multiple industries. This paper also focuses on the implementation and critical parameters for introducing fog computing in IoT-cloud architecture. A detailed comparative analysis has been carried out for 5 different architectures considering various crucial parameters to identify how the quality of service and quality of experience for end users can be optimized. Finally, this paper looks at the multiple challenges that fog computing faces in a structured six-level approach. These challenges will also lead the way for future research in resource management, green computing, and security.