SDFog: A Software Defined Computing Architecture for QoS Aware Service Orchestration over Edge Devices

TL;DR

This paper proposes SDFog, a middleware that combines cloud, fog, SDN, and NFV to enable QoS-aware service orchestration on edge devices, addressing real-time response and scalability challenges.

Contribution

It introduces SDFog, a novel middleware that integrates cloud and fog computing with SDN and NFV for dynamic, QoS-aware service management at the network edge.

Findings

Demonstrates SDN-based QoS control effectiveness in fog environments

Shows improved real-time response capabilities with SDFog

Validates middleware's ability to manage services end-to-end

Abstract

Cloud computing revolutionized the information technology (IT) industry by offering dynamic and infinite scaling, on-demand resources and utility-oriented usage. However, recent changes in user traffic and requirements have exposed the shortcomings of cloud computing, particularly the inability to deliver real-time responses and handle massive surge in data volumes. Fog computing, that brings back partial computation load from the cloud to the edge devices, is envisioned to be the next big change in computing, and has the potential to address these challenges. Being a highly distributed, loosely coupled and still in the emerging phase, standardization, quality-of-service management and dynamic adaptability are the key challenges faced by fog computing research fraternity today. This article aims to address these issues by proposing a service-oriented middleware that leverages the convergence of cloud and fog computing along with software defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) to achieve the aforementioned goals. The proposed system, called "Software Defined Fog" (SDFog), abstracts connected entities as services and allows applications to orchestrate these services with end-to-end QoS requirements. A use-case showing the necessity of such a middleware has been presented to show the efficacy of the SDN-based QoS control over the Fog. This article aims at developing an integrated system to realize the software-defined control over fog infrastructure.