Faster and More Efficient IoT Networks: Researchers Propose Flying Fog Computing with Drones

Saturday - January 20 2024, 16:21 UTC - 10 months ago

Researchers propose flying fog computing with drones as a new scheme for IoT networks. This addresses challenges such as network coverage and energy efficiency, resulting in improved speed and reliability. Comparisons with traditional IoT networks show significantly lower latency in the drone network, making it a promising solution for future deployments.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has the potential to connect user devices with everyday household and professional devices, providing promising opportunities for improved efficiency and convenience. However, one of the main challenges in deploying and managing such a network is finding the right balance between functionality and energy efficiency. To address this issue, researchers from RUDN University have proposed a new scheme that utilizes flying drones for data processing instead of traditional cloud data centers.

The team, led by Ammar Muthanna, Ph.D., Director of the Scientific Center for Modeling Wireless 5G Networks at RUDN University, published their findings in the journal Drones. In their study, they compared the performance of fog computing on drones with a conventional IoT network and found significant improvements in terms of network latency, speed, and reliability.

Fog computing is a hybrid network architecture that combines the advantages of both cloud computing and conventional computing on end devices. This allows for data storage and processing at an additional layer between the cloud data center and other network elements. In the case of the proposed flying fog computing model, the drones act as the additional layer and move to where the data needs to be processed.

Through their simulations, the researchers found that the average network latency in the drone network was consistently lower compared to a traditional IoT network. For example, at 500 network nodes, the latency was almost halved in the drone network. Even at 100 nodes, the difference was significant, highlighting the superior performance of fog computing on drones.

Muthanna stated, "Flying fog computing is a promising solution that takes full advantage of the potential of such a network and has surpassed traditional static edge computing. Our proposed model has shown superior performance in reducing average latency compared to conventional schemes." .

This new scheme addresses key challenges in the deployment and management of IoT networks, including network coverage and energy efficiency. By utilizing flying drones for data processing, the network latency is significantly reduced, resulting in improved speed and reliability. The researchers hope to further explore the potential of flying fog computing and its applications in other network architectures in the future.