Foggy clouds and cloudy fogs: a real need for coordinated management of fog-to-cloud computing systems

The recent advances in cloud services technology are fueling a plethora of information technology innovation, including networking, storage, and computing. Today, various flavors have evolved of IoT, cloud computing, and so-called fog computing, a concept referring to capabilities of edge devices and users' clients to compute, store, and exchange data among each other and with the cloud. Although the rapid pace of this evolution was not easily foreseeable, today each piece of it facilitates and enables the deployment of what we commonly refer to as a smart scenario, including smart cities, smart transportation, and smart homes. As most current cloud, fog, and network services run simultaneously in each scenario, we observe that we are at the dawn of what may be the next big step in the cloud computing and networking evolution, whereby services might be executed at the network edge, both in parallel and in a coordinated fashion, as well as supported by the unstoppable technology evolution. As edge devices become richer in functionality and smarter, embedding capacities such as storage or processing, as well as new functionalities, such as decision making, data collection, forwarding, and sharing, a real need is emerging for coordinated management of fog-to-cloud (F2C) computing systems. This article introduces a layered F2C architecture, its benefits and strengths, as well as the arising open and research challenges, making the case for the real need for their coordinated management. Our architecture, the illustrative use case presented, and a comparative performance analysis, albeit conceptual, all clearly show the way forward toward a new IoT scenario with a set of existing and unforeseen services provided on highly distributed and dynamic compute, storage, and networking resources, bringing together heterogeneous and commodity edge devices, emerging fogs, as well as conventional clouds.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Smart mobility: opportunity or threat to innovate places and cities

The concept of the “smart mobility” has become something of a buzz phrase in the planning and transport fields in the last decade. After a fervent first phase in which information technology and digital data were considered the answer for making mobility more efficient, more attractive and for increasing the quality of travel, some disappointing has grown around this concept: the distance between the visionarypotentialthatsmartness is providingis too far from the reality of urban mobility in cities. We argue in particular that two main aspects of smart mobility should be eluded: the first refers to the merely application to technology on mobility system, what we called the techo-centric aspect; the second feature is the consumer-centric aspect of smart mobility, that consider transport users only as potential consumers of a service. Starting from this, the study critics the smart mobility approach and applications and argues on a“smarter mobility” approach, in which technologies are only oneaspects of a more complex system. With a view on the urgency of looking beyond technology and beyond consumer-oriented solutions, the study arguments the need for a cross-disciplinary and a more collaborative approach that could supports transition towards a“smarter mobility” for enhancing the quality of life and the development ofvibrant cities. The article does not intend to produce a radical critique of the smart mobility concept,denying a priori its utility. Our perspectiveisthat the smart mobility is sometimes used as an evocativeslogan lacking some fundamental connection with other central aspect of mobility planning and governance. Main research questions are: what is missing in the technology-oriented or in the consumers-oriented smart mobility approach? What are the main risks behind these approaches? To answer this questions the paper provides in Section 2 the rationale behind the paper;Section 3 provides a literature review that explores the evolution on smart mobility paradigm in the last decades analysing in details the “techno-centric”and the “consumer-centric” aspects. Section 4proposes an integrated innovative approach for smart mobility, providing examples and some innovative best practices in Belgium. Some conclusions are finally drawnin Section 5, based on the role of smart mobility to create not only virtual platforms but high quality urban places

Guest editorial : Introduction to the special issue on connected vehicles in intelligent transportation systems

Connected vehicles (CVs) are one of the critical components of intelligent transportation systems. CVs enable any vehicle to act as a smart node that collects and shares information on vehicles, roads, and their surroundings. This information can then be distributed to other vehicles via vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, and also to road users via vehicle-to-human (V2H) communication, for an improved driving experience. The information can also be forwarded toward traffic control systems via vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication, for improved traffic management and road safety. Making use of of connected vehicles in intelligent transportation systems will revolutionize the way we drive. Many issues, however, need to be resolved to achieve better performance of connected vehicles. Improvements relate to data processing and storage, the development of standards and regulations across all platforms, design and deployment of new communication protocols and system architectures, and the creation and introduction of new services and applications.http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=6979hj2018Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineerin

Smart mobility: a survey

Internet of Things (IoT) describes a world where everyday objects are always connected to the Internet, allowing them to communicate and interact with each other. By connecting these everyday objects to the Internet and making them available everywhere at any time, IoT allows to remotely monitor, manage, and gather status information about them and their surrounding environment. IoT is a revolutionary concept that brought new experiences to everyday life and enabled Smart City initiatives all over the world. These initiatives are using a combination of technology paired with physical infrastructure and services, to improve people’s quality of life. One of the high priority domain to support the Smart City’s vision is the field of Smart Mobility. This paper reviews the current IoT approaches and concepts related to Smart Cities and Smart Mobility. In addition, it analyzes distinct features and numerous applications covering both Intelligent Transportation and Real Time Traffic Management Systems.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Smart mobility: a survey

Internet of Things (IoT) describes a world where everyday objects are always connected to the Internet, allowing them to communicate and interact with each other. By connecting these everyday objects to the Internet and making them available everywhere at any time, IoT allows to remotely monitor, manage, and gather status information about them and their surrounding environment. IoT is a revolutionary concept that brought new experiences to everyday life and enabled Smart City initiatives all over the world. These initiatives are using a combination of technology paired with physical infrastructure and services, to improve people's quality of life. One of the high-priority domain to support the Smart City's vision is the field of Smart Mobility. This paper reviews the current IoT approaches and concepts related to Smart Cities and Smart Mobility. In addition, it analyzes distinct features and numerous applications covering both Intelligent Transportation and Real Time Traffic Management Systems

VANET Applications: Hot Use Cases

Current challenges of car manufacturers are to make roads safe, to achieve free flowing traffic with few congestions, and to reduce pollution by an effective fuel use. To reach these goals, many improvements are performed in-car, but more and more approaches rely on connected cars with communication capabilities between cars, with an infrastructure, or with IoT devices. Monitoring and coordinating vehicles allow then to compute intelligent ways of transportation. Connected cars have introduced a new way of thinking cars - not only as a mean for a driver to go from A to B, but as smart cars - a user extension like the smartphone today. In this report, we introduce concepts and specific vocabulary in order to classify current innovations or ideas on the emerging topic of smart car. We present a graphical categorization showing this evolution in function of the societal evolution. Different perspectives are adopted: a vehicle-centric view, a vehicle-network view, and a user-centric view; described by simple and complex use-cases and illustrated by a list of emerging and current projects from the academic and industrial worlds. We identified an empty space in innovation between the user and his car: paradoxically even if they are both in interaction, they are separated through different application uses. Future challenge is to interlace social concerns of the user within an intelligent and efficient driving

Infraestructure readiness for autonomous vehicles

This study is aimed at identifying the major challenges in the infraestructure design, operation and maintenance to allow the implementation of Autonomous Vehicles in interurban and urban road network