Fog Computing for the Internet of Mobile Things: Issues and Challenges

The Internet of Things (IoT) conceives a world where everyday objects are able to join the Internet and exchange data as well as process, store, collect them from the surrounding environment, and actively intervene on it. An unprecedented number of services may be envisioned by exploiting the Internet of Things. Fog Computing, which is also known as Edge Computing, was proposed in 2012 as the ideal paradigm to support the resource-constrained IoT devices in data processing and information delivery. Indeed, the Fog, which does not replace the centralized Cloud but cooperates with it, distributes Cloud Computing technologies and principles anywhere along the Cloud-to-Things continuum and particularly at the network edge. The Fog proximity to the IoT devices allows for several advantages that must be continuously guaranteed, also when end devices move from one place to another. In this paper, we aim at examining in depth what it means to provide mobility support in a Fog environment and at investigating what are the main challenges to be faced. Besides, in order to highlight the importance of this topic in everyday life, we provide the reader with three scenarios where there is an integration between the IoT and Fog Computing, and in which mobility support is essential. We finally point out the main research directions in the field.