Virtualization and Migration at the Network Edge: An Overview

As for the Cloud, essential features of Fog Computing are both virtualization and the capability to migrate virtual environments among nodes. In this paper, we thoroughly report both the state-of-the-art virtualization and migration techniques and their available implementations. In particular, we investigate the aptness of such technologies for a specific layer of the Fog hierarchy, namely the network edge. Indeed, this layer presents some characteristics that distinguish it from the Cloud so that a virtualization or migration technique that represents a good compromise for the Cloud might not be likewise suitable for the edge.