Energy Efficiency of Fog Computing and Networking Services in 5G Networks

Today many users with their smart mobile devices enjoy the benefits of broadband Internet services. This is primarily enabled by pushing computing, control, data storage and processing into the cloud. However, the cloud encounters growing limitations, such as reduced latency, high mobility, high scalability and real-time execution in order to meet the computing and intelligent networking demands for the next 5G mobile and wireless network. A new paradigm called Fog Computing and Networking, or briefly Fog has emerged to resolve these limits. Fog distributes computing, data processing, and networking services closer to the end users. It is an architecture where distributed edge and user devices collaborate with each other and with the clouds to carry out computing, control, networking, and data management tasks. Fog applied in 5G network can significantly improve network performance in terms of spectral and energy efficiency, enable direct device-to-device wireless communications, and support the growing trend of network function virtualization and separation of network control intelligence from radio network hardware. This paper evaluates the quality of cloud and fog computing and networking orchestrated services in 5G mobile and wireless network in terms of energy efficiency.