Fog Computing Systems: State of the Art, Research Issues and Future Trends, with a Focus on Resilience

TL;DR

This paper reviews the current state, challenges, and future directions of Fog Computing Systems, emphasizing resilience management for complex, heterogeneous IoT-integrated systems with real-time requirements.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive survey of FCS, discusses key research issues, and proposes future trends focusing on resilience, modeling with Game Theory, and flexible programming platforms.

Findings

FCS are crucial for future IoT applications with strict latency requirements

Resilience management is essential due to system heterogeneity and complexity

Game Theory can be used to model and improve FCS resilience

Abstract

Many future innovative computing services will use Fog Computing Systems (FCS), integrated with Internet of Things (IoT) resources. These new services, built on the convergence of several distinct technologies, need to fulfil time-sensitive functions, provide variable levels of integration with their environment, and incorporate data storage, computation, communications, sensing, and control. There are, however, significant problems to be solved before such systems can be considered fit for purpose. The high heterogeneity, complexity, and dynamics of these resource-constrained systems bring new challenges to their robust and reliable operation, which implies the need for integral resilience management strategies. This paper surveys the state of the art in the relevant fields, and discusses the research issues and future trends that are emerging. We envisage future applications that have very stringent requirements, notably high-precision latency and synchronization between a large set of flows, where FCSs are key to supporting them. Thus, we hope to provide new insights into the design and management of resilient FCSs that are formed by IoT devices, edge computer servers and wireless sensor networks; these systems can be modelled using Game Theory, and flexibly programmed with the latest software and virtualization platforms.