Chapter 1 - Introduction to different computing paradigms: cloud computing, fog computing, and edge computing

Abstract

This chapter introduces the different computing paradigms: Cloud computing, fog computing, and edge computing, with emphasis on edge computing. Each of these paradigms is more suited to a particular application than the other, and each has its own features. The different computing paradigms are deployed depending upon the need of the application. Cloud computing systems have proved to be useful in almost all application areas, providing remote processing and storage of the end-user data and software in the bigger data centers. However, for smaller requests, accessing a remote data center has resulted in latency and bandwidth problems, which become particularly evident in IoT-based applications, where sensor readings are uploaded to the cloud, processed, and results are sent back to the end-users. To solve this problem, CISCO has introduced fog computing, wherein fog nodes filter the data to be sent to the cloud and process the rest of the data. A faster version of fog computing is edge computing, wherein edge devices do most of the computation, making the end-user experience faster and smoother. Although fog computing and edge computing are helpful in reducing the load of centralized clouds and giving a faster end-user experience, these systems involve many challenges and security concerns, which are discussed in this chapter.