A fog architecture for decentralized decision making in smart buildings

Abstract

The integration of humans into smart buildings raises challenges between meeting individual preferences and the generic rules set to optimize energy effectiveness of interest to organizations. Merging the individual preferences of multiple occupants that share thermal zones compounds the challenge. To address related challenges, we have developed FRODO (Fog Architecture for Decision Support in Organizations), an architecture designed to establish a location- aware environment for conflict negotiation and decision support that is based on fog computing. This paper describes the model transformation from a centralized software architecture towards a decentralized Cyber-Physical System (CPS) which encompasses sensors, actuators, and the occupants of smart buildings. The transformation is implemented through MIBO, a framework that allows occupants to control their environment. MIBO has been extended to introduce a fog layer for improved negotiation and conflict resolution. This enables additional benefits to be optimized, such as increased quality of service, reduced latency, and improved security and resilience. The fog layer, introduced with FRODO, allows occupants and organizations to express and discuss conflicts in decision-making, at their point of origin.