2020/11/30 by Mostafa Haghi Kashani, Kashani, Mostafa Haghi, Ahmad Ahmadzadeh +3
Computer Science · Engineering · #Context-Aware Activity Recognition Systems #Distributed #FOS: Computer and information sciences #IoT and Edge/Fog Computing #Networking and Internet Architecture (cs.NI) #Parallel #Smart Cities and Technologies #and Cluster Computing (cs.DC) #cs.DC #cs.NI
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2011.14706
19 pages, 9 figures, 11 tables, 94 references
openalex publication_date 2020/11/30 · arxiv created 2020/12/01 · arxiv updated 2020/12/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Recently, fog computing has been introduced as a modern distributed paradigm and complement to cloud computing to provide services. Fog system extends storing and computing to the edge of the network, which can solve the problem about service computing of the delay-sensitive applications remarkably besides enabling the location awareness and mobility support. Load balancing is an important aspect of fog networks that avoids a situation with some under-loaded or overloaded fog nodes. Quality of Service (QoS) parameters such as resource utilization, throughput, cost, response time, performance, and energy consumption can be improved with load balancing. In recent years, some researches in load balancing techniques in fog networks have been carried out, but there is no systematic review to consolidate these studies. This article reviews the load-balancing mechanisms systematically in fog computing in four classifications, including approximate, exact, fundamental, and hybrid methods (published between 2013 and August 2020). Also, this article investigates load balancing metrics with all advantages and disadvantages related to chosen load balancing mechanisms in fog networks. The evaluation techniques and tools applied for each reviewed study are explored as well. Additionally, the essential open challenges and future trends of these mechanisms are discussed.