Smart Cities’ Big Data: Performance and Cost Optimization With Regional Computing

Smart devices in smart cities face the dual challenge of requiring real-time data processing and storing that data permanently on the cloud for future use. This creates a significant conflict between the need for immediate responsiveness and the demands of long-term storage. While Cloud Computing (CC) offers a viable platform for processing and storing this data, it introduces delays, longer response times, and network congestion issues. Internet of Things (IoT) devices require real-time responses, but their data must also be available for subsequent analysis and decision-making. Although edge and fog computing paradigms have been developed to address these issues, they suffer from limited resources and scalability challenges, making them inadequate for the above needs. A hybrid paradigm is often proposed to address the limitations of both cloud and edge computing. However, synchronization between cloud and edge can introduce delays, negatively affecting overall performance. The proposed framework, Regional Computing (RC), addresses big data challenges in smart cities by providing an intermediate solution between edge (limited power) and cloud (distant) computing. RC manages data during peak hours, alleviating congestion on the public network. The collected data is subsequently offloaded to cloud servers for long-term storage and detailed analysis. Preliminary findings are very encouraging, indicating substantial enhancements in reducing network congestion, minimizing delays, and lowering costs.