An Effective Mechanism for FOG Computing Assisted Function Based on Trustworthy Forwarding Scheme (IOT)

Abstract

As the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to proliferate, the demand for efficient and secure data processing at the network edge has grown exponentially. Fog computing, a paradigm that extends cloud capabilities to the edge of the network, plays a pivotal role in meeting these requirements. In this context, the reliable and trustworthy forwarding of data is of paramount importance. This paper presents an innovative mechanism designed to ensure the trustworthiness of data forwarding in the context of MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport), a widely adopted IoT communication protocol. Our proposed mechanism leverages the inherent advantages of MQTT to establish a robust and secure data-forwarding scheme. It integrates fog computing resources seamlessly into the MQTT ecosystem, enhancing data reliability and security. The mechanism employs trust models to evaluate the credibility of IoT devices and fog nodes involved in data forwarding, enabling informed decisions at each stage of the transmission process. Key components of the mechanism include secure communication protocols, authentication mechanisms, and data integrity verification. The proposed secure communication protocols (TLS/SSL, MQTTS, and PKI) and data integrity verification methods (MAC, digital signatures, checksums, and CRC) provide a robust framework for ensuring secure and trustworthy data transmission in IoT systems. These elements collectively contribute to the establishment of a reliable data forwarding pipeline within MQTT. Additionally, the mechanism prioritizes low-latency communication and efficient resource utilization, aligning with the real-time requirements of IoT applications. Through empirical evaluations and simulations, the research demonstrates the effectiveness of our proposed mechanism in improving the trustworthiness of data forwarding, while minimizing overhead, as the experiment was conducted with 15 fog nodes, and the maximum Level of Trust (LoT) score was 0.968, which is very high, with an estimated accuracy of 97.63%. The results indicate that our approach significantly enhances data security and reliability in MQTT-based IoT environments, thereby facilitating the seamless integration of fog computing resources for edge processing.