NeTS: Small: Collaborative Research: Hierarchical Framework with Distributed Resource Allocation for Mobile Fog Computing

A mobile fog computing system is composed of geographically distributed 'fog nodes', which are fixed or mobile computing devices with built-in data storage, computing, and communication support. Benefiting from small scale, low cost, and mobility, the fog nodes are able to offload data traffic from the data cloud, reduce the cost of communications in the networks, and provide real-time, location-aware data services. In a highly mobile system of fog nodes, resource allocation is an important yet challenging issue. This research offers novel advances in improving the design and analysis of mobile fog computing, especially from the perspectives of resource allocation and mobility management. The distributed resource allocation framework and its associated designs will have a tremendous array of potential users and applications. This project is interdisciplinary by nature, and encompasses concepts from economics, decision theory, optimization, information theory, communications, and networking. It also integrates research findings into related undergraduate and graduate curriculum, K-12 outreach, and diversity support. In addition, transition to practice and outreach to industry are also part of this project.

The research objective of this project is to design, analyze, and evaluate a hierarchical framework with distributed resource allocation for mobile fog computing considering multiple data service operators serving multitudes of users at the same time. The project consists of three main research thrusts: (1) hierarchical framework with interactions for resource allocation; (2) distributed game theoretical approach to model the interactions among data service operators, users and fog nodes; and (3) distributed mobility management in mobile fog computing to support dynamic adaptation of computing resources due to mobility of users and fog nodes. The success of the proposed research will provide new perspectives on future mobile fog computing network design.