Living at the Edge? Optimizing availability in IoT

Abstract

Cloud, edge, and fog computing enable Internet of Things (IoT) applications, offering high connectivity, scalability, and high availability. Smart cities, smart agriculture, and e-health systems are examples of IoT applications that can exploit the opportunities generated by these technologies. However, due to the scale and complexity of the IoT and the heterogeneity of the devices and service level expectations, resource management is not a trivial task. While facilitating storage and processing at the end device (the edge), at the intermediary layer (the fog), or centrally (the cloud), new points of failure are introduced at and between each layer. In some use cases, such as e-health, device availability also has high criticality. Any downtime impacting one or more components in the architecture can result in adverse effects and/or additional logistical effort and cost. This chapter discusses extant research on how cloud, fog, and edge computing is being used in smart city, smart agriculture, and e-health systems.