FNSS: A Heuristics for Fog Node Site Selection

In this era of Information Technology (IT), services such as storage, computing, and networking offered by the Cloud and Fog computing, make life easier. With the introduction of the Internet of Things (IoT), activities pertaining to smart life are being automated. Many IoT applications are real-time in nature and therefore require quick processing and actuation. Researchers are working on planning and designing a network of Fog devices to offer the services close to the edge devices (data generation points). To serve such real-time applications, determining the optimal location to place the Fog devices is important. This work proposes a heuristic-based approach to solve a Fog Node Site Selection (FNSS) problem by formulating a mathematical model. This formulation considers the optimal location for the Fog device placement and interconnection between the Fog devices and the Cloud. The proposed model minimizes three important parameters: deployment cost, network latency, and communication traffic towards Cloud. The proposed model applies three multi-objective optimization methods, i.e., Weighted Sum, Null Constraint, and Sequential approach. The IBM CPLEX optimization tool is used to evaluate the model. A case study of the University automation, that leads to a smart university has been considered. The experimental results favour the Weighted Sum approach, out of three, which performs better than the other two methods.