Software-Defined Dew, Roof, Fog and Cloud (SD-DRFC) Framework for IoT Ecosystem: The Journey, Novel Framework Architecture, Simulation, and Use Cases

The Internet of Things (IoT) has become one of the most known terms in present times, reaching new levels and setting a trend in the world. Evidently, it is the future of connectivity which has turned physical objects into intelligent objects. Therefore, there has been a growing curiosity in the IoT field and this leads to the concept of IoT ecosystem. But the contemporary fragmented ecosystem of regulations, technologies, and systems slows IoT deployments. Thus, we consider multi-tiered computational infrastructure which would be feasible to provide services from the nearest possible location of end devices. To mitigate multi-tier infrastructure issues, Software-Defined Networking (SDN) steps in. The journey behind SDN-supported multi-tier computational infrastructure can be understood from this paper’s elaborate study. Next, a comparative analysis on dew, roof, fog and cloud is conducted and the impact of internet on these computing paradigms is briefly explained. Then a novel framework termed “SD-DRFC (Software-Defined Dew, Roof, Fog and Cloud computing)” is proposed for today's IoT ecosystem. The role and functionality of each tier of SD-DRFC framework are adequately explained. A use case focused on the SD-DRFC framework is then presented and simulated by utilizing iFogSim simulator. To evaluate the efficiency of the presented SD-DRFC framework, four QoS parameters (Latency, Network Usage, Cost, and Energy Consumption) are considered in this paper. When comparing the simulation results, the presented SD-DRFC framework performs much better than cloud-only implementation. The advantages and suitability of utilizing this proposed framework have been demonstrated by multiple use-cases which range from conceptual visions to existing running systems.