National Institute of Telecommunications, Santa Rita do Sapucaí, MG 37540-000, Brazil.
Federal University of Piauí (UFPI), Teresina, PI 64049-550, Brazil.
Sensors (Basel). 2020 Apr 30;20(9):2553. doi: 10.3390/s20092553.
Fog computing is a distributed infrastructure where specific resources are managed at the network border using cloud computing principles and technologies. In contrast to traditional cloud computing, fog computing supports latency-sensitive applications with less energy consumption and a reduced amount of data traffic. A fog device is placed at the network border, allowing data collection and processing to be physically close to their end-users. This characteristic is essential for applications that can benefit from improved latency and response time. In particular, in the e-Health field, many solutions rely on real-time data to monitor environments, patients, and/or medical staff, aiming at improving processes and safety. Therefore, fog computing can play an important role in such environments, providing a low latency infrastructure. The main goal of the current research is to present fog computing strategies focused on electronic-Health (e-Health) applications. To the best of our knowledge, this article is the first to propose a review in the scope of applications and challenges of e-Health fog computing. We introduce some of the available e-Health solutions in the literature that focus on latency, security, privacy, energy efficiency, and resource management techniques. Additionally, we discuss communication protocols and technologies, detailing both in an architectural overview from the edge devices up to the cloud. Differently from traditional cloud computing, the fog concept demonstrates better performance in terms of time-sensitive requirements and network data traffic. Finally, based on the evaluation of the current technologies for e-Health, open research issues and challenges are identified, and further research directions are proposed.
雾计算是一种分布式基础设施，使用云计算原则和技术在网络边缘管理特定资源。与传统云计算相比，雾计算支持具有更低能耗和更少数据流量的延迟敏感型应用程序。雾设备放置在网络边缘，允许数据收集和处理在物理上更接近其最终用户。对于可以从改善延迟和响应时间中受益的应用程序，这种特性至关重要。特别是在电子医疗领域，许多解决方案依赖实时数据来监测环境、患者和/或医务人员，旨在改善流程和安全性。因此，雾计算可以在这种环境中发挥重要作用，提供低延迟基础设施。目前研究的主要目标是提出专注于电子医疗（e-Health）应用的雾计算策略。据我们所知，本文是首次提出关于电子医疗雾计算应用和挑战的综述。我们介绍了文献中一些专注于延迟、安全性、隐私、节能和资源管理技术的现有电子医疗解决方案。此外，我们讨论了通信协议和技术，详细介绍了从边缘设备到云的架构概述。与传统云计算不同，雾计算在时间敏感要求和网络数据流量方面表现出更好的性能。最后，基于对电子医疗现有技术的评估，确定了开放的研究问题和挑战，并提出了进一步的研究方向。
