Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) Applications of Edge and Fog Computing: A Review and Future Directions

With rapid technological advancements within the domain of Internet of Things (IoT), strong trends have emerged which indicate a rapid growth in the number of smart devices connected to IoT networks and this growth cannot be supported by traditional cloud computing platforms. In response to the increased capacity of data being transferred over networks, the edge and fog computing paradigms have emerged as extremely viable frameworks that shift computational and storage resources towards the edge of the network, thereby migrating processing power from centralized cloud servers to distributed LAN resources and powerful embedded devices within the network. These computing paradigms, therefore, have the potential to support massive IoT networks of the future and have also fueled the advancement of IoT systems within industrial settings, leading to the creation of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technology that is revolutionizing industrial processes in a variety of domains. In this paper, we elaborate on the impact of edge and fog computing paradigms on IIoT. We also highlight the how edge and fog computing are poised to bring about a turnaround in several industrial applications through a use-case approach. Finally, we conclude with the current issues and challenges faced by these paradigms in IIoT and suggest some research directions that should be followed to solve these problems and accelerate the adaptation of edge and fog computing in IIoT.