Cloud-connected flying edge computing for smart agriculture

Due to recent advancements and the success of versatile mobile applications, more and more services around the globe are being moved to the cloud. As a result, its limitations have become more evident. The major issues that cloud-based applications face include large latency, bottlenecks because of central processing, compromised security, and lack of offline processing. The drawbacks of cloud computing are reduced by fog and edge computing, where data are processed near the places where it is generated—at network edges or fog nodes—most importantly in a distributed way. Smart agriculture is an approach based on the Internet of Things (IoT) where cloud computing is not an option as the internet is usually not available at remote sites. In addition, pure edge computing also is not practical, as most sensor nodes are very small and they do not have enough computing power. Intermediate fog computing also is not a good choice, as fixed fog nodes (getaway nodes) do not work well with high node fluctuation caused by bad weather or harsh conditions. Considering these issues and limitations, we have proposed the idea of flying edge computing where an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) acts as an edge-computing machine. This can be an ideal solution for smart agriculture, given the size and remoteness of many agricultural areas. This technique can be called “wind or breeze computing” because the data are “blown” or moved by the current of computing. The Flying-Edge offers fast deployment of edge facilities in challenging locations and it can be a major step to accomplish the goal of IoT-based smart agriculture.