NeTS: Small: Collaborative Research: Hierarchical Framework with Distributed Resource Allocation for Mobile Fog Computing

移动雾计算系统由地理上分布的“雾节点”组成，这些“雾节点”是内置数据存储、计算和通信支持的固定或移动计算设备。雾节点具有规模小、成本低、可移动性强的特点，能够从数据云中卸载数据流量，降低网络中的通信成本，并提供实时、位置感知的数据服务。在高度移动的雾节点系统中，资源分配是一个重要而又具有挑战性的问题。本研究为改进移动雾计算的设计和分析提供了新的进展，特别是从资源分配和移动管理的角度。分布式资源分配框架及其相关设计将拥有大量潜在用户和应用程序。这个项目本质上是跨学科的，涵盖了经济学、决策理论、优化、信息理论、通信和网络等概念。它还将研究成果整合到相关的本科和研究生课程、K-12外展和多样性支持中。此外，向实践的过渡和向行业的拓展也是这个项目的一部分。本课题的研究目标是在考虑多个数据服务运营商同时服务多个用户的情况下，设计、分析和评估一个具有分布式资源分配的移动雾计算分层框架。该项目包括三个主要研究重点：(1)具有资源分配交互的分层框架；(2)采用分布式博弈论方法对数据服务运营商、用户和雾节点之间的交互进行建模；(3)移动雾计算中的分布式移动性管理，支持用户和雾节点的移动性对计算资源的动态适应。该研究的成功将为未来的移动雾计算网络设计提供新的视角。

A mobile fog computing system is composed of geographically distributed 'fog nodes', which are fixed or mobile computing devices with built-in data storage, computing, and communication support. Benefiting from small scale, low cost, and mobility, the fog nodes are able to offload data traffic from the data cloud, reduce the cost of communications in the networks, and provide real-time, location-aware data services. In a highly mobile system of fog nodes, resource allocation is an important yet challenging issue. This research offers novel advances in improving the design and analysis of mobile fog computing, especially from the perspectives of resource allocation and mobility management. The distributed resource allocation framework and its associated designs will have a tremendous array of potential users and applications. This project is interdisciplinary by nature, and encompasses concepts from economics, decision theory, optimization, information theory, communications, and networking. It also integrates research findings into related undergraduate and graduate curriculum, K-12 outreach, and diversity support. In addition, transition to practice and outreach to industry are also part of this project. The research objective of this project is to design, analyze, and evaluate a hierarchical framework with distributed resource allocation for mobile fog computing considering multiple data service operators serving multitudes of users at the same time. The project consists of three main research thrusts: (1) hierarchical framework with interactions for resource allocation; (2) distributed game theoretical approach to model the interactions among data service operators, users and fog nodes; and (3) distributed mobility management in mobile fog computing to support dynamic adaptation of computing resources due to mobility of users and fog nodes. The success of the proposed research will provide new perspectives on future mobile fog computing network design.