Abstract
Pushing computing, control, data storage, and processing into the cloud has been a key trend in the past decade. However, the cloud alone encounters growing limitations, such as reduced latency, high mobility, high scalability, and real-time execution in order to meet the upcoming computing and intelligent networking demands. A new paradigm called fog computing has emerged to overcome these limits. Fog extends cloud computing and services to the edge of the network. It provides data, computing, storage, and application services to end-users that can be hosted at the network edge. It reduces service latency, and improves QoS/QoE, that results in superior user experience. This chapter is about introduction and overview of fog computing, comparison between fog computing and cloud computing, fog computing and mobile edge computing, possible fog computing architecture, applications of fog computing, and possible research directions.
TopCloud Computing
The idea of cloud computing is based on a very fundamental principal of reusability of IT capabilities (Zhang, Zhang, Chen, & Huo, 2010). Cloud computing is a computing paradigm, where a large pool of systems is connected in private or public networks, in order to provide dynamically scalable infrastructure for application, data and file storage (Dialogic Corporation, 2010). At the same time, the shared cloud resources (networks, servers, data warehouses, applications and services) can be rapidly provisioned and managed with minimal interaction by service providers.
The cloud computing users may use these resources for development, hosting and running of services and applications on demand in a flexible way at any device, at any time and at any place in the cloud. With the advent of this technology, the cost of computation, application hosting, content storage and delivery is reduced significantly.