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Review
. 2020 Apr 30;20(9):2553.
doi: 10.3390/s20092553.

Looking at Fog Computing for E-Health through the Lens of Deployment Challenges and Applications

Pedro H Vilela  1 , Joel J P C Rodrigues  2   3   4 , Rodrigo da R Righi  5 , Sergei Kozlov  4 , Vinicius F Rodrigues  5
Affiliations
Review

Looking at Fog Computing for E-Health through the Lens of Deployment Challenges and Applications

Pedro H Vilela et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

Fog computing is a distributed infrastructure where specific resources are managed at the network border using cloud computing principles and technologies. In contrast to traditional cloud computing, fog computing supports latency-sensitive applications with less energy consumption and a reduced amount of data traffic. A fog device is placed at the network border, allowing data collection and processing to be physically close to their end-users. This characteristic is essential for applications that can benefit from improved latency and response time. In particular, in the e-Health field, many solutions rely on real-time data to monitor environments, patients, and/or medical staff, aiming at improving processes and safety. Therefore, fog computing can play an important role in such environments, providing a low latency infrastructure. The main goal of the current research is to present fog computing strategies focused on electronic-Health (e-Health) applications. To the best of our knowledge, this article is the first to propose a review in the scope of applications and challenges of e-Health fog computing. We introduce some of the available e-Health solutions in the literature that focus on latency, security, privacy, energy efficiency, and resource management techniques. Additionally, we discuss communication protocols and technologies, detailing both in an architectural overview from the edge devices up to the cloud. Differently from traditional cloud computing, the fog concept demonstrates better performance in terms of time-sensitive requirements and network data traffic. Finally, based on the evaluation of the current technologies for e-Health, open research issues and challenges are identified, and further research directions are proposed.

Keywords: Internet of Things; cloud computing; e-health; fog computing; healthcare.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Summary of the systematic literature review process.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Illustration of a basic three-tier fog architecture presenting some sensors, devices, and communication protocols present in the model.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Proposal of a fog computing taxonomy in the scope of e-Health applications.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Amount of studies that focus on each issue.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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