Fog device virtualization pertains to virtualizing fog computing resources and services, enabling multiple virtual fog devices to run on a single physical fog node. It allows for efficient use of the physical resources and dynamic allocation of the virtual fog devices based on the changing demands of the Internet of Things (IoT) network.
With fog device virtualization, multiple virtual fog devices can run simultaneously, each with its own unique set of functions and characteristics, and can be assigned to different IoT devices as needed. The scalability and flexibility of the fog computing infrastructure are enhanced and allow more efficient and effective deployment of IoT services and applications. Compute and storage can be controlled as functions, but virtualization can also control the functions and analytics of "things" of fog devices.
Virtualization in Fog devices is further categorized as:
• Object virtualization: Object virtualization allows physical sensors to gain IP functionality without impacting their native functionality. In addition, virtual objects enhance the potentiality of resource-constrained physical objects by catching on to heavy workloads such as security.
• Network function virtualization: Network function virtualization maps standard network services to virtual objects, simplifies communication between data producers and consumers with minimal latency and improves security and scalability. Virtualizing network functions also have the potential to reduce energy consumption, capital costs and operational cost.
• Service virtualization: Service virtualization brings together community and cloud apps from different providers to provide local Fog users an excellent experience at a flat cost. Service virtualization is considered to organize local Application Production Grids (APGs) for highlighted services and provide convenient interfaces at endpoints for the perfect quality of experience (QoE).
• Hardware Limitations: The availability and capabilities of the underlying hardware can limit the level of virtualization that can be achieved.
• Performance: Performance degradation can occur due to the overhead of virtualization, such as the added latency and increased resource usage.
• Towards SDN-based fog computing: MQTT broker virtualization for effective and reliable delivery.
• Design and energy-efficient resource management of virtualized networked Fog architectures for the real-time support of IoT applications.
• EXEGESIS: Extreme edge resource harvesting for a virtualized fog environment.
• A review on container-based lightweight virtualization for fog computing.
