Resource Allocation Strategy in Fog Computing Based on Priced Timed Petri Nets

Fog computing, also called "clouds at the edge," is an emerging paradigm allocating services near the devices to improve the quality of service (QoS). The explosive prevalence of Internet of Things, big data, and fog computing in the context of cloud computing makes it extremely challenging to explore both cloud and fog resource scheduling strategy so as to improve the efficiency of resources utilization, satisfy the users' QoS requirements, and maximize the profit of both resource providers and users. This paper proposes a resource allocation strategy for fog computing based on priced timed Petri nets (PTPNs), by which the user can choose the satisfying resources autonomously from a group of preallocated resources. Our strategy comprehensively considers the price cost and time cost to complete a task, as well as the credibility evaluation of both users and fog resources. We construct the PTPN models of tasks in fog computing in accordance with the features of fog resources. Algorithm that predicts task completion time is presented. Method of computing the credibility evaluation of fog resource is also proposed. In particular, we give the dynamic allocation algorithm of fog resources. Simulation results demonstrate that our proposed algorithms can achieve a higher efficiency than static allocation strategies in terms of task completion time and price.