5 ms·

Computing Types for the Internet of Things

52 points by steveappdev 9y ago

photojosh 9y ago
It took me far too long to work out that "fog" is a "cloud" that's right next to you, and hence "fog computing" is a local cloud. Haha. Of course, that made "mist", a thin fog (?) make sense too.
bhauer 9y ago
As a consumer/prosumer/user of some IoT devices, the compute model I prefer is probably most closely aligned with what the author calls the "Fog" model. For devices at my home, I want: * No data to leave my personal private network, except to third-party APIs for necessary information to fulfill my requests. If I have a smart agent device, for example, and I ask it to tell me the movies playing at my local theater, it is acceptable for an API request to go out to the cloud to fetch showtimes. But precisely that and only that. * Computation runs on either the edge device itself or my local computing resources. Like many households, I have several "desktop class" PCs which each are more than capable of doing the kind of processing used by today's IoT use-cases. And like many enthusiast households, I have home servers as well, which are even more powerful. Despite several starts and stops in the space, I suspect eventually we will see home servers return as more people demand local processing and data autonomy. * Data is stored either on the edge device or on my local computing resources (as above). * Devices are available remotely via my home network's secure tunnel that is available anywhere on the Internet. (No specific requirements for the devices themselves.)
- krapp 9y ago
  >Ha. You'll get a proprietary black box that steals all of your data, eats all of your bandwidth, offers no public API and stores everything in the cloud, and you'll like it.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- pratumlabs 9y ago
  Your dream is not too far away from reality. Devices like Mozilla's Things Gateway (https://iot.mozilla.org/gateway/ https://iot.mozilla.org/gateway/) represent some of the most ideal fog nodes as they are inexpensive and fairly powerful. Not too long ago there was even a research project called Paradrop (https://paradrop.org/ https://paradrop.org/) which made a fog node out of a consumer-grade router. My company is working on modeling software right now for Fog deployments and hope to use the knowledge we gain to build our own fog computing solution. Our first application will likely be either a fog-based filesystem (already done by researchers within Princeton's Edge Lab) or a Fog-based backup / NAS solution. It'll be a while before we get to this stage, but it's emerging from the mist so to speak. Also for anyone interested in how the Cloud, Edge, and Fog computing models differ, I wrote a blog post about this topic (http://pratumlabs.com/blog/2018/01/what-is-fog-computing/ http://pratumlabs.com/blog/2018/01/what-is-fog-computing/) a few weeks ago.
- noobiemcfoob 9y ago
  You're view seems too informed by your technical background. I can't imagine a rise in home servers to facilitate IoT as most customers will never have that level of interest in IoT products unless this is a type of product installed and maintained by a trained technician. Most applications don't justify that level of involvement. This is the primary reason for doing compute and data storage away from the edge device. The edge device has to be dead simple that someone with hardly any technology background can place it and set it up. The customer just doesn't care enough to spend much time with any one IoT device. These class of devices are by and large adding only marginal value to the customer's life. Every detail they have to think about when working with the device becomes an impediment to their using the device at all.
  - zeveb 9y ago
    > I can't imagine a rise in home servers to facilitate IoT as most customers will never have that level of interest in IoT products unless this is a type of product installed and maintained by a trained technician. Why not? With the demise of Moore's law and the rise of zero-moving-part computers, as well as the existence of container technology, it will soon be possible to install a single compute node in a home and have it be dependably useful for over a decade. This node will be able to run all of the computing jobs necessary in a home, from the thermostat to the lighting to the TV to web browsing and games-playing (and even running web and email servers — or social networking services!). It would be easily serviced by a dedicated technician (as e.g. hot-water heaters and furnaces are today). Not being forced to run cloud services saves device manufacturers money. Not requiring cloud services means that devices will continue to work usefully without Internet connexions. Not using cloud services means that user data is more private and secure.
    - johnhenry 9y ago
      Hold up... when did Moore's law meet its demise? I've heard that the conjecture is failing as we run into certain physical limits of making computer parts smaller, but I think what you've written indicates the opposite?
platz 9y ago
I'm on board for moon computing
- steveappdev 9y ago
  Falcon 9 is ready for you kind sir!

52 points by steveappdev 9y ago

It took me far too long to work out that "fog" is a "cloud" that's right next to you, and hence "fog computing" is a local cloud. Haha. Of course, that made "mist", a thin fog (?) make sense too.

bhauer 9y ago

As a consumer/prosumer/user of some IoT devices, the compute model I prefer is probably most closely aligned with what the author calls the "Fog" model. For devices at my home, I want: * No data to leave my personal private network, except to third-party APIs for necessary information to fulfill my requests. If I have a smart agent device, for example, and I ask it to tell me the movies playing at my local theater, it is acceptable for an API request to go out to the cloud to fetch showtimes. But precisely that and only that. * Computation runs on either the edge device itself or my local computing resources. Like many households, I have several "desktop class" PCs which each are more than capable of doing the kind of processing used by today's IoT use-cases. And like many enthusiast households, I have home servers as well, which are even more powerful. Despite several starts and stops in the space, I suspect eventually we will see home servers return as more people demand local processing and data autonomy. * Data is stored either on the edge device or on my local computing resources (as above). * Devices are available remotely via my home network's secure tunnel that is available anywhere on the Internet. (No specific requirements for the devices themselves.)

krapp 9y ago
>Ha. You'll get a proprietary black box that steals all of your data, eats all of your bandwidth, offers no public API and stores everything in the cloud, and you'll like it.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
pratumlabs 9y ago
Your dream is not too far away from reality. Devices like Mozilla's Things Gateway (https://iot.mozilla.org/gateway/ https://iot.mozilla.org/gateway/) represent some of the most ideal fog nodes as they are inexpensive and fairly powerful. Not too long ago there was even a research project called Paradrop (https://paradrop.org/ https://paradrop.org/) which made a fog node out of a consumer-grade router. My company is working on modeling software right now for Fog deployments and hope to use the knowledge we gain to build our own fog computing solution. Our first application will likely be either a fog-based filesystem (already done by researchers within Princeton's Edge Lab) or a Fog-based backup / NAS solution. It'll be a while before we get to this stage, but it's emerging from the mist so to speak. Also for anyone interested in how the Cloud, Edge, and Fog computing models differ, I wrote a blog post about this topic (http://pratumlabs.com/blog/2018/01/what-is-fog-computing/ http://pratumlabs.com/blog/2018/01/what-is-fog-computing/) a few weeks ago.
noobiemcfoob 9y ago
You're view seems too informed by your technical background. I can't imagine a rise in home servers to facilitate IoT as most customers will never have that level of interest in IoT products unless this is a type of product installed and maintained by a trained technician. Most applications don't justify that level of involvement. This is the primary reason for doing compute and data storage away from the edge device. The edge device has to be dead simple that someone with hardly any technology background can place it and set it up. The customer just doesn't care enough to spend much time with any one IoT device. These class of devices are by and large adding only marginal value to the customer's life. Every detail they have to think about when working with the device becomes an impediment to their using the device at all.
- zeveb 9y ago
  > I can't imagine a rise in home servers to facilitate IoT as most customers will never have that level of interest in IoT products unless this is a type of product installed and maintained by a trained technician. Why not? With the demise of Moore's law and the rise of zero-moving-part computers, as well as the existence of container technology, it will soon be possible to install a single compute node in a home and have it be dependably useful for over a decade. This node will be able to run all of the computing jobs necessary in a home, from the thermostat to the lighting to the TV to web browsing and games-playing (and even running web and email servers — or social networking services!). It would be easily serviced by a dedicated technician (as e.g. hot-water heaters and furnaces are today). Not being forced to run cloud services saves device manufacturers money. Not requiring cloud services means that devices will continue to work usefully without Internet connexions. Not using cloud services means that user data is more private and secure.
  - johnhenry 9y ago
    Hold up... when did Moore's law meet its demise? I've heard that the conjecture is failing as we run into certain physical limits of making computer parts smaller, but I think what you've written indicates the opposite?

platz 9y ago

I'm on board for moon computing

steveappdev 9y ago
Falcon 9 is ready for you kind sir!