Extending Internet of Things Systems with Fog and Edge Computing

In recent years, whether we are talking about industrial implementations or whether we are talking about products offered to the masses, there is an accelerated trend of the appearance of IoT devices, devices that collect information and, depending on their specifics, can make certain decisions in the process. This increase automatically leads to the generation of more generated data that must be sent for processing, analyzed, stored, a certain decision being made based on the result of the analysis. This process can be long, the duration strictly determined by the volume of data and the performance of the Cloud infrastructure. Fog and Edge computing has come to our aid with an innovative solution, acting as an additional layer between IoT and Cloud devices. This layer aims to reduce the response time by analyzing the data at the edge of the network, in this way it is no longer necessary to send all the information directly to the Cloud. Whether we are talking about smart cities, the health field or the industrial fields, the presence of IoT devices shows the usefulness of the need to implement Fog and Edge systems. Starting from this growth in the IoT field, the authors wish through this article to analyze the existing implementations that use Fog and Edge computing, the existing architectural levels, the analysis of the areas that present vulnerabilities, as well as the possible improvements that can be added to make the processes more efficient.