Internet Of Things (IOT)

Session 2
Edge Device:
What is an Edge Device?
An edge device is an endpoint on the network, the interface between the data center and the real world.
Edge devices collect or communicate information.
They run the gamut from simple sensors to complex industrial systems. They are scanners and
smartphones, medical devices and scientific instruments, autonomous vehicles and automated
machines—every “thing” in the Internet of Things.
Why are edge devices needed?
There are already many times more edge devices on the planet than people, generating more than two-
thirds of enterprise data—and growing.
And as the number of edge devices and the volume of data they generate continue to multiply, it becomes
progressively more difficult, even impossible, to control those devices and process that information from
the data center, or even in the cloud. Intelligent edge devices capable of analyzing and using data when and
where they generate it are critical to the future of distributed computing.
What does an edge device do?
Edge devices exist on the boundary between digital processes and the physical environment. They accept
instructions from end-users and return information.
They monitor and control machinery. They record measurable phenomena and convert it to usable data.
As devices grow more sophisticated, they are increasingly able to process and apply data at the edge,
avoiding latency and bandwidth limitations.
Distributed Computing
Distributed computing is the method of making multiple computers work together
to solve a common problem. It makes a computer network appear as a powerful
single computer that provides large-scale resources to deal with complex
challenges.
What is Cloud Computing:
Cloud computing refers to the on-demand delivery of IT services/resources over the internet.
On-demand computing service over the internet is nothing but cloud computing.
By using cloud computing users can access the services from anywhere whenever they need.
Nowadays, a massive amount of data is generated every second around the globe. Businesses
collect and process that data from the people and get analytics to scale their business.
When lots of organizations access their data simultaneously on the remote servers in data
centers, data traffic might occur. Data traffic can cause some delay in accessing the data.
Cloud computing technology alone is not effective enough to store and process massive
amounts of data and respond quickly.
For example, in the Tesla self-driving car, the sensor constantly monitors certain regions around
the car. If it detects an obstacle or pedestrian on its way, then the car must be stopped or move
around without hitting. When an obstacle is on its way, the data sent through the sensor must be
processed quickly and help the car to detect before it hits. A little delay in detection could be a
major issue.
To overcome such challenges, edge computing and fog computing are introduced.
What is Edge Computing and Fog Computing: Contd.

Edge Computing
Computation takes place at the edge of a device’s network, is known as edge computing. That means a computer is connected
with the network of the device, which processes the data and sends the data to the cloud in real-time. That computer is known
as “edge computer” or “edge node”.

With this technology, data is processed and transmitted to the cloud instantly. Yet, edge nodes transmit all the data captured or
generated by the device regardless of the importance of the data.

Example of Edge computing:

Autonomous vehicle edge computing devices collect data from cameras and sensors on the vehicle, process it, and make
decisions in milliseconds, such as self-parking cars.
In order to accurately assess a patient’s condition and foresee treatments, data is processed from a variety of edge devices
connected to sensors and monitors.
Here Fog Computing was introduced and becomes an ideal solution.

Fog Computing

Fog computing is an extension of cloud computing. It is a layer in between the edge and the cloud. When edge computers send
huge amounts of data to the cloud, fog nodes receive the data and analyze what’s important. Then the fog nodes transfer the
important data to the cloud to be stored and delete the unimportant data or keep them with themselves for further analysis. In this
way, fog computing saves a lot of space in the cloud and transfers important data quickly.
Pictorial Diagram Of Cloud Computing, Fog Computing & Edge Computing : Contd.
Difference Between Edge Computing and Fog Computing:
S.NO. EDGE COMPUTING FOG COMPUTING

01. Less scalable than fog computing. Highly scalable when compared to edge computing.

02. Billions of nodes are present. Millions of nodes are present.

Nodes in this computing are installed closer to the cloud(remote

03. Nodes are installed far away from the cloud.
database where data is stored).

04. Edge computing is a subdivision of fog computing. Fog computing is a subdivision of cloud computing.

The bandwidth requirement is very low. Because data comes from the The bandwidth requirement is high. Data originating from edge nodes
05. edge nodes themselves. is transferred to the cloud.

06. Operational cost is higher. Operational cost is comparatively lower.

07. High privacy. Attacks on data are very low. The probability of data attacks is higher.

08. Edge devices are the inclusion of the IoT devices or client’s network. Fog is an extended layer of cloud.

The power consumption of nodes filter important information from

09. The power consumption of nodes is low. the massive amount of data collected from the device and saves it in
the filter high.

Fog computing helps in filtering important information from the

Edge computing helps devices to get faster results by processing the
10. data simultaneously received from the devices.
massive amount of data collected from the device and saves it in the
cloud by sending the filtered data.