Developing IoT applications in the Fog:a distributed dataflow approach

In this paper we examine the development of IoT applications from the perspective of the Fog Computing paradigm, where computing infrastructure at the network edge in devices and gateways is leverage for efficiency and timeliness. Due to the intrinsic nature of the IoT: heterogeneous devices/resources, a tightly coupled perception-action cycle and widely distributed devices and processing, application development in the Fog can be challenging. To address these challenges, we propose a Distributed Dataflow (DDF) programming model for the IoT that utilises computing infrastructures across the Fog and the Cloud. We evaluate our proposal by implementing a DDF framework based on Node-RED (Distributed Node-RED or D-NR), a visual programming tool that uses a flow-based model for building IoT applications. Via demonstrations, we show that our approach eases the development process and can be used to build a variety of IoT applications that work efficiently in the Fog

Smart cities:engaging users and developers to foster innovation ecosystems

Increasingly, city planners and government officials understand that cities are engines of innovation and wealth creation. Equally, there is a growing understanding that the application of technology in support of Smart Cities helps grow the urban economy and deliver better services to citizens. However, often Smart City projects are top- down projects focused on improving city infrastructure using technology. We argue, and our experience over the last decade has shown, that often, citizen driven, or grass-roots based Smart City projects deliver better value and sustainable success. In this paper we report on our work to engage citizens and the technology community in smart city projects and highlight some lessons learnt from our experiences. We show how a modest investment in a Smart City Data Hub (using our IoT platform – WoTKit) plus development tools based on Node-RED helps bootstrap a Smart City innovation cluster

Fog at the Edge:experiences building an Edge computing platform

Technology advancement has pushed computation to the network edge, paving the way for a class of IoT applications that leverage CPU, storage and communications in edge devices. Building these new IoT applications is not an easy task however. Two key challenges include: supporting the dynamic nature of the edge network and the context-dependent characteristics of application logic. In this paper we report our experience in building an edge computing platform that uses a distributed data flow programming model based on the popular open source Node-RED tool. We describe some of the challenges we faced as well as some novel solutions that were implemented in our platform. A new approach in applying the concept of exogenous coordination is also presented and shown to be necessary in building large scale IoT applications across the edge, fog and cloud

FRED:a hosted data flow platform for the IoT

IoT developers need to integrate a variety of protocols, backend components and services; they often need to pre and post-process data as well as react to changes in the real world. Data flow programming tools have been introduced in a number of related domains to provide a flexible, but easy to use visual programming environment for rapid development. The open source Node-RED system provides such a tool for IoT applications, but is limited to executing a single flow file in a single thread. In this paper we describe the design of our system called the Front-End for Node-RED (FRED) that manages multiple instances of Node-RED for logged in users, allowing Node-RED to be used as a cloud-hosted data flow mashup tool for the IoT. We present some examples of how some of our 1800+ users are using FRED for IoT mashups, and some of the challenged we faced in implementing the FRED system

The rise of britain's super-indies: Policy-making in the age of the global media market

This article analyses Britain’s remarkable performance in the European television industry. In the space of a few years the UK has risen to become the world’s leading exporter of TV formats and the world’s second exporter, behind the Unites States, of finished TV programmes. The first section compares and contrasts British TV exports data with that of France, before examining the emergence of London as Europe’s media hub. The second part argues that this significant progress is essentially due to deft policy making. In 2003, the British government operated a strategic shift in favour of content producers and created a new intellectual property regime. This regime has enabled producers to keep hold of their rights and become asset-owning businesses, eventually giving rise to a new breed of production companies: the super-indies. This paper shows how these super-indies have acquired the scale to compete in an international TV market and drive today’s British TV exports. Contrasting again Britain’s performance in the European TV trade with France, this article also analyses historical influences and claims it is Britain’s imperial past that helps her performance in the European TV marketplace. In addition to the globalization of the English language and the cultural affinities this nurtures, the trading heritage of the British Empire has facilitated Britain’s political elite’s understanding of the role that trade and the market can play in the creative industries, and enabled them to frame a broadcasting policy that is adapted to the global age

Direct detection and measurement of wall shear stress using a filamentous bio-nanoparticle

The wall shear stress (WSS) that a moving fluid exerts on a surface affects many processes including those relating to vascular function. WSS plays an important role in normal physiology (e.g. angiogenesis) and affects the microvasculature's primary function of molecular transport. Points of fluctuating WSS show abnormalities in a number of diseases; however, there is no established technique for measuring WSS directly in physiological systems. All current methods rely on estimates obtained from measured velocity gradients in bulk flow data. In this work, we report a nanosensor that can directly measure WSS in microfluidic chambers with sub-micron spatial resolution by using a specific type of virus, the bacteriophage M13, which has been fluorescently labeled and anchored to a surface. It is demonstrated that the nanosensor can be calibrated and adapted for biological tissue, revealing WSS in micro-domains of cells that cannot be calculated accurately from bulk flow measurements. This method lends itself to a platform applicable to many applications in biology and microfluidics

Exogenous coordination for building fog-based cyber physical social computing and networking systems

With the proliferation of smart embedded devices, Cyber Physical Social Computing and Networking systems (CPSCN) are emerging as a next generation of social networks. Unlike traditional Social Networks that run on cloud-based infrastructure, CPSCN systems usually depend on a large number of distributed, heterogeneous devices such as mobile phones, smart vehicles or network access points. These computing resources, which are often referred to as fog computing systems, provide a gateway to the physical world, and thus offer new possibilities for social applications. Unfortunately, building CPSCN systems that leverage fog computing infrastructure is not straightforward. Significant challenges arise from the large scale distribution of computing resources over a wide area, and the dynamic nature of multiple, possibly mobile, hosts. In this paper, we extend our previous work on a Distributed Dataflow programming model and propose an application platform for realising CPSCN systems. A key aspect of our work is the development of an exogenous coordination model, which exhibits a separation of concern between computation and communication activities, and helps resolve some of the challenges brought about by the dynamic and large scale nature of CPSCN systems

On developing smart transportation applications in fog computing paradigm

Smart Transportation applications by nature are examples of Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANETs) applications where mobile vehicles, roadside units and transportation infrastructure interplay with one another to provide value added services. While there are abundant researches that focused on the communication aspect of such Mobile Ad-hoc Networks, there are few research bodies that target the development of VANET applications. Among the popular VANET applications, a dominant direction is to leverage Cloud infrastructure to execute and deliver applications and services. Recent studies showed that Cloud Computing is not sufi- cient for many VANET applications due to the mobility of vehicles and the latency sensitive requirements they impose. To this end, Fog Computing has been proposed to leverage computation infrastructure that is closer to the network edge to compliment Cloud Computing in providing latencysensitive applications and services. However, applications development in Fog environment is much more challenging than in the Cloud due to the distributed nature of Fog systems. In this paper, we investigate how Smart Transportation applications are developed following Fog Computing approach, their challenges and possible mitigation from the state of the arts