The Extended Cloud: Review and Analysis of Mobile Edge Computing and Fog From a Security and Resilience Perspective

TLDR

Mobile edge computing and fog extend cloud services to the network edge, creating new deployment requirements and highlighting security and resilience concerns that existing cloud solutions may not address. The study investigates how the extended cloud influences existing cloud communication and networking service models. The authors analyze the models, architectures, and technologies that underpin the extended cloud, evaluating them against security and resilience requirements. They find that cloud‑based security and resilience mechanisms such as anomaly detection and policy‑based resilience management can be adapted to enhance security and resilience in the extended cloud.

Abstract

Mobile edge computing (MEC) and fog are emerging computing models that extend the cloud and its services to the edge of the network. The emergence of both MEC and fog introduce new requirements, which mean their supported deployment models must be investigated. In this paper, we point out the influence and strong impact of the extended cloud (i.e., the MEC and fog) on existing communication and networking service models of the cloud. Although the relation between them is fairly evident, there are important properties, notably those of security and resilience, that we study in relation to the newly posed requirements from the MEC and fog. Although security and resilience have been already investigated in the context of the cloud-to a certain extent-existing solutions may not be applicable in the context of the extended cloud. Our approach includes the examination of models and architectures that underpin the extended cloud, and we provide a contemporary discussion on the most evident characteristics associated with them. We examine the technologies that implement these models and architectures, and analyze them with respect to security and resilience requirements. Furthermore, approaches to security and resilience-related mechanisms are examined in the cloud (specifically, anomaly detection and policy-based resilience management), and we argue that these can also be applied in order to improve security and achieve resilience in the extended cloud environment.