Hybrid Approach for Enabling Hierarchical Fog Networks in an IoT Deployment

Abstract

More and more "Smart Devices" are coming online every year. These Smart Devices have the ability to communicate with other Smart Devices across the web, exchange information and make intelligent decisions. This influx of new devices and connections has caused the central servers that manage those Smart Devices to come under heavy load. Measures to combat this have inadvertently resulted in increased network complexity. This paper considers a use-case where such complexity might arise and points out why addressing that complexity is necessary. The paper also considers existing IoT products and how network complexity is handled in them. The paper concludes by proposing a hybrid approach that would enable a central server to understand complex IoT networks especially ones with devices arranged in a hierarchical manner. It should be noted that this research is still ongoing and under development.