Abstract
In fog computing, processing, network, and storage resources are placed
close to the end users to assure a low latency in comparison to the
latency experienced when accessing services in the cloud. One limitation
of this solution, however, is that fog nodes are usually fixed, whereas
demands are variable over time at all locations, resulting in
underutilization of the fog resources as well as unnecessary
provisioning of fog resources. One way for dealing with this problem is
the employment of mobile nodes to cope with the variability in resource
demand. This paper studies how unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped
with processing capabilities can be used in this perspective, and
proposes a solution to the fog node location problem considering both
fixed and mobile nodes. It proposes the UAV Fog Node Location (UFL)
algorithm to evaluate potential replacements of fixed servers by UAVs.
The proposed algorithm can be used for long term planning under the
assumption of changes in the prices of UAVs. An evaluation of the
problem using data generated by real mobile users shows that UAVs can
improve the design of future fog networks.
This work has been submitted to the IEEE for possible publication.
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