New IEEE Working Group to Create Fog Computing and Networking Standards

The OpenFog Consortium has announced that its OpenFog Reference Architecture will serve as the basis for a new working group formed by the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) to accelerate the creation and adoption of industry standards for fog computing and networking. The future standards will serve as a catalyst to propel the digital revolution occurring as a result of advanced Internet of Things (IoT), 5G, and embedded artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

Fog computing and networking is an advanced distributed architecture that brings computing, storage, control, and networking functions closer to the data-producing sources along the cloud-to-thing continuum. Applicable across industry sectors, fog computing effectively addresses issues related to security, cognition, agility, latency, and efficiency (SCALE).

The inaugural meeting of the IEEE Standards Working Group on Fog Computing and Networking Architecture Framework is scheduled for November 2017, with its work expected to be complete by April 2018. Additional details will be unveiled at the Fog World Congress conference, October 30 – November 1 in Santa Clara, where the IEEE Communications Society and the OpenFog Consortium are jointly hosting this first multi-day conference on fog computing and networking.

The OpenFog Reference Architecture is a universal technical framework designed to enable the data-intensive requirements of IoT, 5G and AI applications. It is a structural and functional prescription of an open, interoperable, horizontal system architecture for distributing computing, storage, control and networking functions closer to the users along a cloud-to-thing continuum. The framework encompasses various approaches to disperse information technology (IT), communication technology (CT) and operational technology (OT) services through an information messaging infrastructure as well as legacy and emerging multi-access networking technologies.