Fog Computing | Fog Networking | Fogging

Fog computing or fog networking, also known as fogging, is an architecture that uses edge devices to carry out a substantial amount of computation, storage, and communication locally and routed over the internet backbone.

Both cloud computing and fog computing provide storage, applications, and data to end-users. However, fog computing is closer to end-users and has wider geographical distribution.

‘Cloud computing’ is the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer.Cloud computing can be a heavyweight and dense form of computing power.

Fog Computing | Fog Networking | Fogging  Image Credit: Online Design/TechTarget

The term 'Fog Computing' was defined by Prof. Jonathan Bar-Magen Numhauser in the year 2011 as part of his PhD dissertation project proposal. In January 2012 he presented the concept in the Third International Congress of Silenced Writings in the University of Alcala and published in an official source.

Also known as edge computing or fogging, fog computing facilitates the operation of compute, storage, and networking services between end devices and cloud computing data centers. While edge computing is typically referred to the location where services are instantiated, fog computing implies distribution of the communication, computation, storage resources, and services on or close to devices and systems in the control of end-users.Fog computing is a medium weight and intermediate level of computing power.Rather than a substitute, fog computing often serves as a complement to cloud computing.

What is fog computing?

Fog computing refers to a decentralized computing structure, where resources, including the data and applications, get placed in logical locations between the data source and the cloud; it also is known by the terms ‘fogging’ and ‘fog networking.’

The goal of this is to bring basic analytic services to the network edge, improving performance by positioning computing resources closer to where they are needed, thereby reducing the distance that data needs to be transported on the network, improving overall network efficiency and performance. Fog computing can also be deployed for security reasons, as it has the ability to segment bandwidth traffic, and introduce additional firewalls to a network for higher security. 

Fog computing has its origins as an extension of cloud computing, which is the paradigm to have the data, storage and applications on a distant server, and not hosted locally. With the cloud computing model, the client can purchase the services from a provider, which delivers not only the service, but also the maintenance and upgrades, with the plus that they can be accessed anywhere, and facilitating work by teams.

History of fog computing

The term fog computing is associated with Cisco, who registered the name ‘Cisco Fog Computing,’ which played on cloud computing as in the clouds are up in the sky, and the fog refers to the clouds down close to the ground. In 2015, an OpenFog Consortium was created with founding members ARM, Cisco, Dell, Intel, Microsoft and Princeton University, and additional contributing members including GE, Hitachi and Foxconn. IBM introduced the closely allied, and mostly synonymous (although in some situations not exactly) term ‘edge computing.’

How fog computing works

It is important to note that fog networking complements -- not replaces -- cloud computing; fogging allows for short-term analytics at the edge, and the cloud performs resource-intensive, longer-term analytics. While edge devices and sensors are where data is generated and collected, they sometimes don't have the compute and storage resources to perform advanced analytics and machine-learning tasks. Though cloud servers have the power to do these, they are often too far away to process the data and respond in a timely manner. In addition, having all endpoints connecting to and sending raw data to the cloud over the internet can have privacy, security and legal implications, especially when dealing with sensitive data subject to regulations in different countries. Popular fog computing applications include smart grid, smart city, smart buildings, vehicle networks and software-defined networks.

Sources / References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fog_computing
https://internetofthingsagenda.techtarget.com/definition/fog-computing-fogging
https://www.techradar.com/in/news/what-is-fog-computing