Energy-Sustainable Fog System for Mobile Web Services in Infrastructure-Less Environments

Abstract

Nowadays, critical information services such as emergency management and in-situation navigation rely heavily on the assumption of a reliable networking infrastructure and stable cloud processing, which is ineffective in infrastructure-less environments where disrupted or even no telecommunication connectivity is the norm. On the other hand, fog computing is an extension of cloud computing that is at the physical proximity of end-users to enable local storage, computing, and various forms of communication between devices and users. To this end, we design a fog system spanning hardware, software and networking, thus meeting the requirements of various stakeholders in difficult surroundings. As a complement to a cloud-centred solution, this system is geo-distributed, self-powered, self-managed, location-aware, highly efficient and able to provide situational information services without Internet connectivity. The proposed system has been implemented in national parklands of Australia to achieve a personalized information service, emergency management and in-park navigation for all types of parkland users.