Fog/Edge Computing-Based IoT (FECIoT): Architecture, Applications, and Research Issues

Architecting and Deploying IoT Smart Applications: A Performance–Oriented Approach

“…The perception (also called sensing) layer collects the data from sensors. However, soon, a 5-layer architecture was proposed to deal with the rapid development of IoT solutions at the time, adding two more layers: middleware and business [12][13][14]. The middleware (also called processing or service) layer deals with data and databases, as well as service functions, such as discovery, composition, and management.…”

“…While the fog aims at reducing bandwidth usage, latency, and data communication with the datacenter, mist computing extends this concept further in IoT-based systems, closer to the sensors and actuators [12]. Although there is no consensus about the definition of mist, some common understanding can be found, such as being located closer to the devices [21,41].…”

“…Since smart applications will typically have to deal with thousands of devices-or considerably more-performance and scalability concerns are key to any successful IoT deployment. Yet, most current reported experiences show: (a) small-scale pilots [7,44]; (b) simulation-based or analytical results [21,45]; (c) measurement-based results with limited scope [19,46]; (d) no quantitative results at all [2,3,5,8,9,11,12,16,24,37,47]. Also, different architectural and deployment choices for IoT systems affect scalability, and real-time decision-making is possible in an environment composed of thousands of sensors [4,48].…”

“…Nevertheless, IoTecture is the outcome of both an analysis of the literature (Section 2) and an iterative refinement process, and as such, it is effectively used in the specification of pilot deployment scenarios, as well as performance analysis studies. Compared to the 5-layer IoT architecture [12][13][14], our 5-layer one explicitly adds support for highly distributed data management functions and separates physical and data-driven models from application services. Also, by clearly identifying and separating components that are logically bound to the data, model, and service layers, IoTecture actively helps the deployment of IoT smart applications over different distributed locations in the mist, fog, and cloud.…”

“…Layered architectures are critical structures in computer networks and distributed systems as they facilitate the understanding of roles, locations, and levels of abstraction of different networking, hardware, and software components. Different IoT architectures have been proposed for facilitating the understanding and design of smart applications, with three [10], four [11,12], or five layers [12][13][14]. The 3-layer architecture-application, network, and perception layers-was soon replaced by a 5-layer architecture by adding two new layers-middleware and business-considered thus more adequate for the rapid evolution of IoT systems.…”