To drive industry and academic leadership in fog computing architecture, testbed development, and a variety of interoperability and composability deliverables that seamlessly leverage cloud and edge architectures to enable end-to-end IoT scenarios.
The OpenFog Consortium (OpenFog) is a public-private ecosystem formed to accelerate the adoption of fog computing in order to solve the bandwidth, latency and communications challenges associated with the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, the Tactile Internet and other advanced concepts in the digitized world. It was founded by ARM, Cisco, Dell, Intel, Microsoft and Princeton University Edge Computing Laboratory in November 2015.
Our work is centered around creating a framework for efficient & reliable networks and intelligent endpoints combined with identifiable, secure, and privacy-friendly information flows between clouds, endpoints, and services based on open standard technologies. OpenFog members represent the leading thinkers and innovators in fog computing, who have come together to help build the foundational elements for this emerging area.
Among the challenges that we are collectively addressing are high latency on the network, support of end point mobility, loss of connectivity, unpredictable bandwidth bottlenecks and distributed coordination of systems and clients. Our technical workgroups are creating an OpenFog architecture that enables end-user clients or near-user edge devices to carry out computation, communication, control and storage.
The work of OpenFog is done through its Committees and Workgroups, overseen by a 15-person Board of Directors. OpenFog shares selected pre-publication work with industry associations through formal liaison and affiliation agreements. Its published work is posted under resources and is available for industry use.
Helder Antunes
Chairman
Sr. Director of Corporate Strategic Innovation Group | Cisco
Helder Antunes is Senior Director, Corporate Strategic Innovation Group at Cisco. He is a results-driven technologist and Cisco veteran with more than 28 years of experience in leading product and solution development. In his current position, Mr. Antunes leads a team to identify major technology market disruptions and align them with Cisco’s key market initiatives and business unit strategies. Previously, as managing director of Cisco’s Internet of Things group, he focused on Smart Connected Vehicles, one of the fastest growing market opportunities for the IT sector.
Mr. Antunes also works with the Portuguese government on innovation programs including the AICEP internship “INOV Contacto Program” and is a guest lecturer at several Portuguese universities. He also serves as an adviser to the Regional Government of the Azores, Portugal. Mr. Antunes has received many awards for his work at Cisco and with the Portuguese government including the COTEC Portuguese Diaspora Entrepreneurial Innovation Award (multiple years).
Jeff Fedders
President
Chief Strategist | Intel IOTG | Strategy & Technology Office
Jeff Fedders is a Chief Strategist for the Internet of Things (IoT) Group Strategy and Technology Office at Intel focused on Standards, Consortia, and Strategic Partnerships. In his role, he oversees Intel’s IoT standards environment engagement, leads the development of their strategies, and directs the standards participation in IoT Standards and Consortia communities.
Mr. Fedders is a leading industry voice for three fundamental IoT Transformation initiatives: Operational Technology/Information Technology Convergence, 2) Information Technology/5G Convergence, and 3) Human/Intelligence Thing Collaboration. He frequently keynotes at industry conferences on the critical role of Standards and Consortia and drives programs to accelerate these industry initiatives.
Mr. Fedders is a founder and the President of the OpenFog Consortium and is responsible for the organization’s operations and outreach strategies. He is also a founder and a Steering Committee representative for the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC), where he directs the technology, testbed, and marketing contributions.
For the past five years, Mr. Fedders has been an instrumental voice in the industry campaign for Network Transformation and Network Function Virtualization (NFV). He led a number of Proof of Concepts (PoCs) with Tier 1 Service Providers aimed at developing Software Defined Network (SDN) architectures and business models.
Brent Hodges
Treasurer
IoT Planning and Product Strategy | Dell
Brent has over twenty years of experience in strategy, commercial operations, marketing, business development and production management in areas ranging from specialty plastics to wireless semiconductors to technology standards to smart grid. Brent has worked for companies from the Fortune 500 to several start-ups and since 2001 has been working to connect ‘things’ (not people) to networks and IT systems.
Prior to Dell, Brent was Chief Commercial Officer for Innovari, selling hardware, software and services to electric utilities to change the way the world uses energy. He was responsible for the global business structure and contracting with customers. Before Innovari, Brent was at Tendril Networks where he was Senior Vice President and General Manager responsible for rest of world sales and delivery of Tendril solutions to electric service providers. Brent established Tendril’s Australia subsidiary and built the local Melbourne delivery team for Tendril’s largest customer. Prior to Tendril, Brent was at NRG Energy and Reliant Energy where he led strategy and development for Smart Grid Service offerings. Prior to working in the electric industry, Brent directed Marketing and Strategy at the ZigBee Alliance. From 2001 to 2005, Brent was one of the initial employees at Boston start-up Ember Corporation (now Silicon Labs) where he was responsible for sales, marketing and business development for wireless sensor networks. Brent also ran several manufacturing operations across the US for a specialty plastics company supplying products to automotive, beverage and industrial customers.
Brent has been a frequent speaker at industry events and conferences as an advocate for new technologies and business models. In 2010, he was named as one of Greentech Media’s 100 Movers and Shakers of the Smart Grid, and was elected to two terms on the Governing Board of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) from 2010 to 2013. He previously served on the Board of Directors for the North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB) and the ZigBee Alliance.
Brent holds a B.S. in industrial engineering from Texas A&M University, an M.S. in industrial engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He enjoys spending time with his wife and three children, watching their sports activities and traveling.
Matt Vasey
VP Business Development
Director, IoT Business Development | Microsoft
Matt Vasey is Director of IoT Business Development at Microsoft, focused on expanding the ecosystem of technology partners, standards bodies, and other innovation enablers that are required for the new generation of IoT Applications, Services, and Systems that serve both individuals and businesses. Previously, he led Microsoft ‘s Embedded Sales team in the Americas, working with industrial OEMs to build a wide variety of industrial and consumer devices across a range of vertical industries.
Mr. Vasey has represented Microsoft as a spokesperson to the press and analyst community on a variety of topics including Enterprise IT, Cloud Services, Service Providers and most recently the Internet of Things. In addition to his work at the OpenFog Consortium, he serves as a Board member for the OPC Foundation. Outside of Microsoft, Mr. Vasey has led regional and national sales teams for leading technology firms, driving revenue and business expansions ranging from startups to $1B+ revenue public companies. While at ODIN (an Ingram Micro company) he drove business and corporate development with Tier 1 investment banks, venture capital firms and technology partners. Mr. Vasey earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Trent University in Canada.
Mung Chiang
Board Member
Arthur LeGrand Doty Professor of Electrical Engineering | Princeton University
Dr. Mung Chiang is the Arthur LeGrand Doty Professor of Electrical Engineering at Princeton University. His research on networking received the 2013 Alan T. Waterman Award, the highest honor to US young scientists and engineers. His textbook “Networks: Friends, Money and Bytes” and online course reached 250,000 students since 2012.
Dr. Chiang founded the Princeton EDGE Lab in 2009, which bridges the theory-practice gap in edge networking research by spanning from proofs to prototypes. He co-founded a few startups in mobile, IoT and big data areas. Dr. Chiang is the Director of Keller Center for Innovations in Engineering Education at Princeton University and the inaugural Chairman of Princeton Entrepreneurship Council.
Bill Curtis
Software Strategist for New Business Development
| ARM
Bill Curtis is the Software Strategist for New Business Development at ARM. Prior to this role, he served as lead Strategist for ARM’s IoT Business Unit. Before joining ARM in 2012, Bill was Senior Fellow and Design Engineer at AMD, CTO of Dell’s Consumer and Displays groups, and Head of Computer Sciences for Landmark Graphics Corporation (Halliburton). Bill is a systems architect with experience ranging from the smallest embedded devices to the highest performance cloud computing systems. He is currently focused on integrating those two worlds.
Rhonda Dirvin
Board Member
Director IoT Vertical Markets | ARM
Rhonda Dirvin is Director of the Internet of Things Verticals at ARM. Since joining ARM in 2011, she has worked in several marketing and strategic roles, including digital marketing and alliances. She now drives ARM’s marketing strategy through the lens of IoT vertical markets.
Ms. Dirvin is an experienced electronics-industry veteran, who began her career with Motorola Semiconductor, where she worked for 17 years. She started in the nascent data communications business where she took on increasing responsibility as it grew into a multi-billion dollar business. She moved on to roles in sales, wireless marketing, and operations with P&L responsibility. She holds a BS in electrical engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from the Red McCombs School of Business.
Dr. T. Russell Hsing
Board Member
Chair Professor and an IEEE Life Fellow | National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan
Russell Hsing, Life Fellow of the IEEE and Fellow for the British Computer Society (BCS), is now Chair Professor of National Chiao Tung University, Guest Professor of Peking University, Adjunct Professors with the Arizona State University, Yonsei University, and Chinese University of Hong Kong. He also services as Board Advisor for four high-tech start-ups in the United States (DaTaMi; Smartiply; and IoT Eye, Inc.) and Taiwan. Dr. Hsing has been Academic Advisor for the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance since March 2014. Currently, his research efforts are concentrating on Wireless 5G, Internet of Things, Network Economy, and Technology Entrepreneurship.
From 1976 to 2012, Dr. Hsing was with the Applied Research Center in Bellcore/Telcordia/Ericsson as Director (1986-1995) and then Executive Director (1995-2012). He accumulated rich R&D experience of 35 years through affiliations with Burroughs, Xerox, GTE Labs, Telco Systems Fiber Optics Corporation, and Bellcore/Telcordia/Ericssson. He led a research team to develop the world’s first working QAM-based ADSL system and the world’s first working DCT chip for video communication applications. Dr. Hsing holds a B.Sc. from Taiwan, M.Sc. and Ph.D of Electrical Engineering from the University of Rhode Island. His research and publications cover communication signal processing, multimedia communications, wireless technologies & sensors network, vehicular networks & telematics, video communications and VLSI implementations.
Dr. Xiliang Luo
Board Member
Professor | ShanghaiTech University
Dr. Xiliang Luo is currently a professor with the school of Information Science and Technology,
ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China. Prior to that, he was with Qualcomm Research,
San Diego, CA, USA.
Dr. Luo has been carrying out cutting-edge researches in next-generation information processing and communications. His current research interests include massive MIMO, dense networks, graph signal
processing, wifi-based behavior recognition, and fog computing. He has published over 50 research
papers in top journals and conferences. He is the co-inventor of over 70 US and international patents
and the majority of them have been adopted into current LTE and LTE-advanced standards.
Doug Nassaur
Board Member
General Manager and Lead Principal Technical Architect | AT&T Labs
Doug Nassaur is a General Manager and Lead Principal Technical Architect for AT&T Labs. He leads cross-organizational teams which define strategy, target state architecture, standards and policy supporting the product lines of AT&T. In his role, he works with vendors, industry organizations and the open source community to drive innovation in software defined networks, cloud computing and big data through proof of concept and pilot initiatives.
In addition to his corporate focus on improving the efficiency of software development, deployment and support, Mr. Nassaur actively contributes to the advancement of Cloud Native Computing, Container standards and the Internet of Things continuum. He represents the company on several industry organizations including the Open Container Initiative (OCI), Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) and The OpenFog Consortium.
Mr. Nassaur is a strong advocate for open source innovation and open standards and serves as chair for the OCI Trademark/Certification committee and the CNCF Architecture committee – both organizations supported by the Linux Foundation. He is proud to serve as Director of North America and as a member of the Board of Directors for The OpenFog Consortium.
Mr. Nassaur is a frequent speaker at industry events and contributor to articles by the media and research firms focused on innovation across the software defined network, cloud computing, Big Data and IoT subject areas.
Liam Quinn
Board Member
Chief Technology Officer | Dell
Liam Quinn has been with Dell since 1997 and is Chief Technology Officer for the Dell Client Business. Mr. Quinn holds over 100 US and Internationally granted and pending patents, and is a published author on networking. He was named Dell Inventor of the Year in 2005, 2007 and 2014. He was an Associate Professor of Engineering at the Dublin Institute of Technology, the University of Texas Austin, and Texas State University. He is a frequent speaker at Wi-Fi and Networking Forums and also represents Dell on the board of the Wi-Fi Alliance, the OpenFog Consortium, and the Airfuel Alliance. Mr. Quinn has designed network systems and wireless solutions and has managed Engineering teams in systems architecture and product development. Mr. Quinn serves on the Engineering Advisory Board of the University of Texas Cockrell School of Engineering and the Texas State Ingram School of Engineering.
Marc-Thomas Schmidt
Board Member
Chief Architect | GE Digital
Marc-Thomas Schmidt is the Chief Architect for Predix, GE’s Industiral IoT platform for optimizing the world’s infrastructure. At GE Digital he defines technical vision, architecture & roadmap for the Predix portfolio in support of the Industrial Internet, enabling users to optimize use of their Industrial Assets based on Digital Twin representations that utilize big data analytics across an edge-to-cloud network of compute resources.
Mr. Schmidt has driven creation of Software Platforms for decades. He started his career at IBM Germany driving creation of IBM’s Workflow Management platform. As CTO Integration Middleware at IBM UK he lead the creation of IBM’s SOA Integration platform. As Chief Architect Watson Platform Next at IBM’s TJ Watson Research Center he drove evolution of IBM’s Watson technology toward a modular software platform.
Rong Shi
Board Member
Vice President | ZTE Corporation
Mr. Rong Shi graduated from Southeast University, China and joined ZTE Corporation in 1998. Now he is the Vice President of Wireless R&D Institute of ZTE Corporation, leads the team for the Research and Product Development in the area of Network Virtualized Infrastructure including IaaS, PaaS, MEC and Fog Computing. He is an expert in Network Architecture, Telecom System Architecture, and IaaS/PaaS Cloud Foundation technologies. He is a PMP, having abundant experience in R&D project management. He has been one of the major system architects and provided leadership in ZTE’s 2G/3G Network, Wi-Fi/Femto Network Controllers/Gateways development since 2000. In 2013, he led his team began to involve in the development of IaaS/PaaS related products. He and his team have been actively contributing to OpenStack, OPNFV, OpenShift, Kubernetes and Docker communities. Now they are also working on MEC, FOG, 5G IoT, trying to introduce Cloud/Fog computing technologies and applications into telecom/enterprise network edge.
Dennis F. Strigl
Board Member
Retired President and COO | Verizon Communications
Dennis F. Strigl was president and chief operating officer of Verizon Communications until his retirement in 2009. Dr. Strigl was responsible for the operations of Verizon’s network businesses — Verizon Wireless, Verizon Telecom and Verizon Business — as well as Verizon Services Operations, which provides financial, real estate and other functional services to all of the corporation’s operations. Dr. Strigl was president and chief executive officer of Verizon Wireless and executive vice president of Verizon Communications prior to being promoted to president of the entire corporation.
Dr. Strigl served in the communications industry for 41 years and is widely recognized as one of the most prominent architects of the wireless communications industry. Dr. Strigl is past chairman (1996-97) of the Board of Directors of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, the national industry association based in Washington, D.C. He currently serves on the board of directors of PNC Financial Services Group and PNC Bank and Smartiply, Inc., and previously served on the boards of Nokia, Kodak, Anadigics and Tellabs. He is the author of Managers, Can You Hear Me Now and is a lecturer on management leadership. Strigl has been a visiting professor at Princeton University since 2013. He holds an undergraduate degree in business administration and doctorate of humane letters from Canisius College and an MBA and doctorate of humane letters from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Steve Vandris
Board Member
Director of IOT and 5G Solutions in the Datacenter Network Solutions Group | Intel
Steve Vandris is the Director for NFV Solutions Planning in the Datacenter Solutions Group of Intel Corporation, responsible for Intel’s NFV solution planning and delivery to enable Network Function Virtualization in communications networks for Service Providers and Enterprises. He was previously director for Standards and Industry Alliances in the SDN Division of the Datacenter Group at Intel responsible for managing Intel’s role in all Standard bodies and Industry Consortia for SDN/NFV, Director of Strategic Planning and Product Marketing at the Networking Division of LSI Corporation, and held various technical and business management positions at Agere Systems, Texas Instruments, Lucent Technologies and AT&T Bell Laboratories. He has 25 years of experience in the technology industry spanning telecommunications, networking and computing HW/SW system design, development and product management, and holds an Executive MBA from Rutgers University, Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis and a B.Sc. degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Sussex in the UK.
Dr. Yang Yang
Board Member
Professor | Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology (SIMIT)
Dr. Yang Yang is currently a professor with Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology (SIMIT), Chinese Academy of Sciences, serving as the Director of CAS Key Laboratory of Wireless Sensor Network and Communication, and the Director of Shanghai Research Center for Wireless Communications (WiCO). He is also a Distinguished Adjunct Professor with the School of Information Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University. Prior to that, he has held faculty positions at University College London (UCL), Brunel University, and The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Yang is a member of the Chief Technical Committee of the National Science and Technology Major Project “New Generation Mobile Wireless Broadband Communication Networks” (2008-2020), which is funded by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) of China. In addition, he is on the Chief Technical Committee for the National 863 Hi-Tech R&D Program “5G System R&D Major Projects”, which is funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of China. Since January 2017, he has been serving the OpenFog Consortium as the Director for Greater China Region.
Yang’s current research interests include wireless sensor networks, Internet of Things, Fog computing, Open 5G, and advanced wireless testbeds. He has published more than 150 papers and filed over 80 technical patents in wireless communications.
Makoto Yasuda
Board Member
| Hitachi, Ltd.
Makoto is a corporate officer of Hitachi Ltd. and also has the title of senior technology evangelist of the Information & Communication Technology Business Division.
His main responsibilities are to promote Hitachi’s advanced and unique technologies to customers and industries and to support leading-edge projects with R&D department. For the past few years, he has focused on Big Data and its analytics. He also works extensively with the Global R&D Team and overseas departments.
Makoto has started his career in the IT industry at Andersen Consulting / Accenture after graduating from Waseda university. Before joining Hitachi in 2012, he worked in the software business as the president of Lotus Japan & AP, a marketing director of IBM Japan, and a partner business & marketing SVP of SAP Japan. Additionally, he worked in the network business for Cisco as a partner sales & marketing VP.
Ron Zahavi
Board Member
Chief Strategist for IoT Standards | Microsoft
Ron Zahavi is the Chief Strategist for IoT standards at Microsoft, focused on the Internet of Things standards and consortia and leads Microsoft’s Worldwide IoT Architecture Community. Mr. Zahavi has over 30 years of experience in all aspects of technology management and solution delivery, 15 of those related to IoT solutions. Prior to joining Microsoft, he ran his own consulting company and held positions as Chief Business Architect at Unisys Corp. and CTO/CIO, managing technology across several companies and performing due diligence of potential acquisitions. His breadth of experience includes work with startups, large companies, government, and private equity firms. Mr. Zahavi has also worked in several business domains, including healthcare, pharmaceuticals, energy, intelligence, and defense.
Zahavi is a member of the Object Management Group Board of Directors and has served on the OMG Architecture Board. He also represents Microsoft in the Industrial Internet Consortium. He is the author or coauthor of several books, including Business Modeling: A Practical Guide to Realizing Business Value. Mr. Zahavi holds a BSEE from the University of Maryland and an MS in computer science from Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Tao Zhang
Board Member
IEEE Fellow and Distinguished Engineer | Cisco Systems
Dr. Tao Zhang, an IEEE Fellow and Cisco Distinguished Engineer, joined Cisco in 2012 as the Chief Scientist (Senior Director) for Smart Connected Vehicles. Since then, he has led initiatives to develop strategies, architectures, technology, and eco-systems for IoT and Fog Computing. Dr. Zhang serves as the CIO and a Board Governor of the IEEE Communications Society, and a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society. He holds over 50 US patents and has co-authored two books “Vehicle Safety Communications: Protocols, Security, and Privacy” (2012) and “IP-Based Next Generation Wireless Networks” (2004) published by John Wiley & Sons.
Prior to Cisco, Dr. Zhang was Chief Scientist and Director of Mobile and Vehicular Networking at Telcordia Technologies (formerly Bell Communications Research). He was a founding Board Director of the Connected Vehicle Trade Association (CVTA) and has served on the advisory boards for several R&D organizations. He was a co-founder of the IEEE Communications Society Technical Sub-Committee on Vehicular Networks and Telematics Applications and served as Chair from 2013 – 2015. He has been an adjunct professor at multiple universities.
Jingyi Zhou
Board Member
Standard Director | ZTE Corporation
Jingyi Zhou is a standard director of ZTE Corporation. In this role, he is responsible for identifying, defining the relevant areas for standardization and product development. He is also responsible for developing industry relationship and partnership.
Jingyi has more than 20 years experience in wireless industry. His career spans multiple roles. He started as an engineer developing, implementing and supporting wireless data networks and applications and accumulated substantial experiences in Network/Application design and operation. Later on, he worked and concentrated in various standardization areas including CDMA 3G to 4G LTE packet core network seamless migration, IMS, Wireless Priority Service, Wireless Emergency Alert, M2M/IoT, and 802.11 technologies in SDOs of 3GPP2, 3GPP, ETSI, ATIS, IEEE 802, IEEE 802.11, IEEE-SA, oneM2M, and Wi-Fi Alliance. In this role, Jingyi involved telecom and IT technology evaluation, planning and standardization that resulted in many successful industry advancements. Jingyi was a member of Next Generation Networks Priority Services (NGN-PS) Forum which defines Government Priority Services sponsored by Department of Homeland Security(DHS). Jingyi also led a team of engineers built internet infrastructure from the ground up in a start-up company. Recently, Jingyi received IEEE-SA appointment as a member of IEEE-SA New Standard Committee (NesCom).
Dr. Douglas N. Zuckerman
Board Member
IEEE Life Fellow and Past President | IEEE Communications Society
An active IEEE volunteer for more than 30 years, Dr. Zuckerman is a past IEEE Division III (Communications Technology) Director, was 2008-2009 President of the IEEE Communications Society, and previously held leadership positions in conferences, publications and membership development. He received his B.S., M.S. and Eng.Sc.D degrees from Columbia University and is an IEEE Life Fellow.
Dr. Zuckerman’s professional experience, mainly at Bell Labs and Telcordia Technologies, USA, spans the operations, management and engineering of emerging communications technologies, networks and applications. His work heavily influenced early standards for management of telecommunications networks. Much of his professional life has been dedicated to IEEE activities. Dr. Zuckerman’s service resulted in the following honors: IEEE Third Millennium Medal, the IEEE Communications Society’s McLellan Award for meritorious service, its Conference Achievement Award, and the Salah Aidarous Memorial Award. Though retired from Telcordia, he is also a consulting employee at Applied Communication Sciences (part of Vencore Labs).
Why was the OpenFog Consortium formed? What problems are you hoping to solve?
A: Fog computing is the missing link to accelerate IoT. It spans the continuum from Cloud to Things in order to bring compute, control, storage and networking closer to where the data is being generated.
The sheer breadth and scale of IoT solutions requires collaboration at a number of levels, including hardware, software across edge and cloud as well as the protocols and standards that enable all of our “things” to communicate. Existing infrastructures simply can’t keep up with the data volume and velocity created by IoT devices, nor meet the low latency response times required in certain use cases, such as emergency services and autonomous vehicles. The strain on networks from cloud-only or cloud-mostly models will only get worse as IoT applications and devices continue to proliferate. In addition, the devices themselves are starting to become smarter, allowing for additional control and capabilities closer to where the data is being generated.
The OpenFog Consortium takes existing industry IoT efforts one step farther by concentrating on creating a composability architecture and approach to fog/edge/distributed computing. We are driving closer collaboration between the entire ecosystem of providers who enable IoT solutions and further the development of the IoT market, including creating a reference design that delivers interoperability close to the end devices. Our efforts will define an architecture of distributed computing, network, storage, control and resources that will support intelligence at the edge of IoT, including autonomous and self-aware machines, things, devices, and smart objects. OpenFog members will also identify and develop new operational models. Ultimately, our work will help to enable and drive the next generation of IoT.
A: Fog computing is a system-level horizontal architecture that distributes resources and services of computing, storage, control and networking anywhere along the continuum from Cloud to Things. By extending the cloud to be closer to the things that produce and act on IoT data, fog enables latency sensitive computing to be performed in proximity to the sensors, resulting in more efficient network bandwidth and more functional and efficient IoT solutions. Fog computing also offers greater business agility through deeper and faster insights, increased security and lower operating expenses.
What are the goals for the OpenFog Consortium?
A: Our goals are related to the technologies, innovation and market potential for fog computing. On the technical front, OpenFog Consortium workgroups are creating an open architecture for fog computing that is necessary to enable interoperability and scalability. We are working with our academia and research members to identify, share and apply best practices in advanced technologies around fog computing. Through a diverse set of members, we are creating an environment where different perspectives and requirements will foster innovation and wide interoperability within the industry. Just as cloud has created new business models, growth and industries, fog computing can eventually do the same.
Who are the founding members of the OpenFog Consortium?
A: The founding members are ARM, Cisco, Dell, Intel, Microsoft Corp., and the Princeton University Edge Laboratory.
Who else is involved in the OpenFog Consortium?
A: OpenFog is an open membership based group, and membership is open to any organization wishing to join us in our mission. Our members are leading thinkers and innovators in fog computing technologies and applications: Industry and technology, research and academia, public and private sector. OpenFog members are headquartered in North America, Europe and Asia. The full list of members is located here; we have about 50 members today. The full list of members is located here.
Is OpenFog a standards body? Is it a governing body?
A: Neither. Our objective is to influence standard bodies into creating standards so that IoT systems at the edge can interoperate securely with other edge systems and cloud services in a friction-free environment. The objective of the consortium is to establish a framework that the markets can flourish within. We have an affiliation agreement with IEEE and we will be establishing liaisons with other standards organizations, with the objective of collaborating in the standards creation.
A: The OpenFog Consortium is the only organization that is focused on fog computing. While other organizations are taking pieces of it, only OpenFog is addressing all aspects of fog computing across compute, control, access, network and storage. However, there is much work to be done, and we believe that the right approach is to collaborate with other consortia. We intend to leverage the technical output of other organizations through formal liaisons to our workgroups, and anticipate that they will similarly incorporate OpenFog architectural frameworks in their work. To date, we have established formal liaison agreements with IEEE, the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and OPC Foundation, and are holding discussions with additional organizations.
What about collaboration with academia and research organizations?
A: We are working closely with our university members and research groups across the globe on research, development, testing and education. Our academic members play an active and important role in the Consortium, through their advanced research of fog computing technology concepts in areas such as security, communications and fog nodes.
What industries will benefit most from fog computing?
A: Fog computing will benefit every industry. In Smart Cities, for example, fog technology can bring intelligence to a range of urban services, including transportation, parking, lighting, traffic and waste management, public safety, and law enforcement. In energy, it might take 12 days via satellite to transmit one day’s worth of data to the cloud from a remote oil rig. With fog computing, the data is processed locally, and safety or equipment alerts can be acted upon immediately. In manufacturing and transportation, preventive maintenance applications can process a huge amount of sensor data to identify equipment failures in advance. In retail, data from parking lot video cameras can not only provide security surveillance, but can also work with fog analytics capabilities to predict store traffic flow, optimize staffing, etc.
How is OpenFog organized and governed?
A: The OpenFog Consortium is formed as a non-profit organization. It is governed by a 15-member Board of Directors, which consists of Founders, Contributing Members, and one Non-Profit Organization. Our current OpenFog Officers and Board of Directors are listed here. Information on current Board members is located here.
A: The work of OpenFog is done by members organized in four committees, under the direction of the Board of Directors. These committees are Technical, Marketing, Affiliations and Regional. There are several workgroups organized under the Committees, each focused on specific areas related to fog computing.
What work has been done since OpenFog was launched in November 2015?
A: We’ve been busy. First, we launched and established our governance structure, and established and launched Committees and workgroups, with charters and objectives. One of the first tasks was to create a common definition of fog computing – there’s a lot of confusion out there, and this was critical. We laid out our vision for an open fog computing architecture, publishing the Overview of OpenFog Architecture white paper in March 2016. We formed technical workgroups in Architecture Framework; Communication; Security; Testbeds; Manageability; Software Infrastructure; and Liaisons; they have been hard at work on the OpenFog reference architecture framework, to be released in the 4Q 2016. (Targeted date: October). We formed affiliations with IEEE, ITAC and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, and formed a technical liaison the OPC Foundation. Finally, we have continually evolved and strengthened the governance of OpenFog through an expanded Board of Directors.
How do the members do the work?
A: OpenFog Consortium holds general membership meetings three times a year, held in rotating locations, where a large focus of the meeting is devoted to workgroup breakout sessions. In addition, the committees and workgroups meet on a weekly or bi-weekly basis via WebEx.
What about the Regional Committees? How do they work?
A: OpenFog currently has two active Regional Committees: Japan and North America. There will be Regional Committees established in Europe and the Greater China Region in the near future. These Committees conduct their activities in the local languages and are headed by an elected Regional Director. Each Committee has specific focused initiatives that complement the overall mission of OpenFog.
Is an OpenFog architecture more complex and costly than the traditional cloud-centric models?
A: While adding fog computing to an IoT network would seem to add complexity, that complexity is sometimes necessary. In certain use cases, fog computing solves the inadequacies of cloud-only models, which have serious latency, network bandwidth, geographic focus, plus reliability and security challenges. OpenFog is taking steps to manage the incremental capacity increase in networks by creating common hardware and software platforms and very sophisticated orchestration, management, configuration, and network analytics capabilities to largely automate the operation of fog networks. We believe that the addition of fog to IoT networks will greatly increase their capabilities and revenue potential, leading to a very short payback for the purchase and installation of a fog network.
I already belong to other organizations. Why should my organization get involved with OpenFog?
A: Despite all its hype, the IoT revolution is only just beginning. Applications and processes won’t begin to reach their full potential until we solve critical data issues associated with latency and bandwidth. This requires creating a highly-scalable and collaborative approach through fog computing, by organizations with deep expertise in a wide range of industries and technologies. Companies that wants to help drive this, can and should join the Consortium. Besides influencing the technical architecture framework, members develop important collaborative relationships with organizations at the forefront of fog computing. In addition, members can participate in OpenFog testbeds, networking events and other activities.
How can my firm get involved? Can individuals get involved?
A: Membership is open to any organization or individual who wishes to join, regardless of size or geographic location. There are five levels of memberships available: Contributing member ($100,000/year); Influencing member ($25,000/year); Small Company member ($10,000/year); Government or Special Interest Group member ($5,000); and Academic/Nonprofit/Individual member ($5,000/year).
I have additional questions. Who do I contact?
A: Please contact us at +1 510-492-4027 or via email at info@OpenFogConsortium.org.
Aalto University
ABBALab inc.
AetherWorks, LLC.
Arizona State University
ARM
AT&T
Caltech
Cisco
Dell
Denver South Economic Development Partnership
FogHorn Systems
Fujitsu
GE Digital
Hitachi
HON HAI PRECISION IND. CO., LTD. (Foxconn)
Incheon National University
Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI)
Institute for Information Industry
Institute of Network Coding, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Intel
Internet Initiative Japan Inc.
ITOCHU techno-Solutions Corporation
Kii
LGS Innovations
MARSEC
Microsoft
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
National Chiao Tung University
National Taiwan University
Nebbiolo Technologies
NEC Corporation
NGD Systems, Inc.
NTT Communications
OSIsoft LLC
Princeton University
PrismTech
Real-Time Innovations
relayr Inc
SAKURA Internet
Schneider Electric
Seagate Technology LLC
Sensify Security
Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology
ShanghaiTech University
Singapore University of Technology and Design
Stichting imec Nederland
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Toshiba
TTTech
University of Colorado Boulder
University of Pisa
Vanderbilt University
Wayne State University
ZTE Corporation
55 members and counting!
Barcelona Supercomputing Center
Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) is the national supercomputing center in Spain. BSC specializes in high performance computing (HPC), and its mission is two-fold: to provide infrastructure and supercomputing services to European scientists, and to generate knowledge and technology to transfer to business and society. BSC is a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence and a first level hosting member of the European research infrastructure PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe). BSC also manages the Spanish Supercomputing Network (RES). BSC is a consortium that includes Spanish Government, Catalan Government and Technical University of Catalonia – Barcelona Tech.
IEEE
IEEE is a large global, technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. Through its highly cited publications, conferences, technology standards, and professional and educational activities, IEEE is the trusted voice on a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics.
IoT Acceleration Consortium
The IoT Acceleration Consortium aims to combine the strengths of government, industry, and academia and build a structure for developing and demonstrating technologies related to the promotion of IoT as well as creating and facilitating new business models. The consortium promotes (1) the development, demonstration, and standardization for IoT-related technologies and (2) creation of various IoT-related project and recommendations such as regulatory reform necessary to run those projects.
OPC Foundation
Since 1996, the OPC Foundation has facilitated the development and adoption of the OPC information exchange standards. As both advocate and custodian of these specifications, the Foundation’s mission is to help industry vendors, end-users, and software developers maintain interoperability in their manufacturing and automation assets. The OPC Foundation is dedicated to providing the best specifications, technology, process and certification to achieve multivendor, multiplatform, secure, reliable interoperability for moving data and information from the embedded world to the enterprise cloud. The organization serves over 470 members worldwide in the Industrial Automation, IT, IoT, IIoT, M2M, Industrie 4.0, Building Automation, machine tools, pharmaceutical, petrochemical, and Smart Energy sectors.
