A Fog-based Architecture and Programming Model for IoT Applications in the Smart Grid

Abstract: The smart grid utilizes many Internet of Things (IoT) applications to support its intelligent grid monitoring and control. The requirements of the IoT applications vary due to different tasks in the smart grid. In this paper, we propose a new computing paradigm to offer location-aware, latencysensitive monitoring and intelligent control for IoT applications in the smart grid. In particular, a new fog-based architecture and programming model is designed. Fog computing extends computing to the edge of a network, which has a perfect match to IoT applications. However, existing schemes can hardly satisfy the distributed coordination within fog computing nodes in the smart grid. In the proposed model, we introduce a new distributed fog computing coordinator, which periodically gathers information of fog computing nodes, e.g., remaining resources, tasks, etc. Moreover, the fog computing coordinator also manages jobs so that all computing nodes can collaborate on complex tasks. In addition, we construct a working prototype of intelligent electric vehicle service to evaluate the proposed model. Experiment results are also presented to demonstrate that our proposed model exceed the traditional fog computing schemes for IoT applications in the smart grid.