Mahfuzulhoq Chowdhury

Bio: Mahfuzulhoq Chowdhury is an academic researcher from Institut national de la recherche scientifique. The author has contributed to research in topics: Computer science & The Internet. The author has an hindex of 6, co-authored 10 publications receiving 314 citations. Previous affiliations of Mahfuzulhoq Chowdhury include Université du Québec à Montréal.

The tactile internet: vision, recent progress, and open challenges

Abstract: The advent of commercially available remote-presence robots may be the precursor of an age of technological convergence, where important tasks of our everyday life will be increasingly done by robots. A very low roundtrip latency in conjunction with ultra-high reliability and essentially guaranteed availability for control communications has the potential to move today’s mobile broadband experience into the new world of the Tactile Internet for a race with (rather than against) machines. To facilitate a better understanding of the Tactile Internet, this article first elaborates on the commonalities and subtle differences between the Tactile Internet and the Internet of Things and 5G vision. After briefly reviewing its anticipated impact on society and infrastructure requirements, we then provide an up-to-date survey of recent progress and enabling technologies proposed for the Tactile Internet. Given that scaling up research in the area of future wired and wireless access networks will be essential for the Tactile Internet, we pay particular attention to the latency and reliability performance gains of fiber-wireless (FiWi) enhanced LTE-Advanced heterogeneous networks and their role for emerging cloudlets, mobile-edge computing, and cloud robotics. Finally, we conclude by outlining remaining open challenges for the Tactile Internet.

The Tactile Internet: Automation or Augmentation of the Human?

Abstract: The idea of remotely controlling machines via the Internet for the purpose of automated tele-manufacturing and shared use of manufacturing facilities by users worldwide has been studied since the late 1990s. This idea is now part of the vision of the emerging Tactile Internet, which lies at the nexus of computerization, automation, and robotization. Similar to future 5G cellular networks, the Tactile Internet is anticipated to rely on the full yet flexible convergence of different fixed and mobile access technologies, given that some use cases do not require mobility all the time. While necessary, though, the design of ultra-reliable and low-latency converged communication network infrastructures is not sufficient to unleash the full potential of the Tactile Internet. In this paper, we put forward the idea that the Tactile Internet may be the harbinger of human augmentation and human–machine symbiosis envisioned by contemporary and early-day Internet pioneers. In search for synergies between humans and machines/robots, we explore the idea of treating the human as a “member” of a team of intelligent machines rather than keep viewing him as a conventional “user” while putting a particular focus on developing systems that are human-aware and help advance the human condition, e.g., economic inequality.

Collaborative Computing for Advanced Tactile Internet Human-to-Robot (H2R) Communications in Integrated FiWi Multirobot Infrastructures

Abstract: With the emergence of the Tactile Internet and advent of remote-controlled robots, proper task allocation among robots has attracted significant attention to enable robotic applications and services based on the human-to-robot communications paradigm. However, limited computing, energy, and storage resources of robots may hinder the successful launch of such applications. Task offloading to collaborative nodes is a promising approach to improve the task execution time and energy efficiency of robots. In this paper, we investigate a proper task allocation strategy by combining suitable host robot selection and computation task offloading onto collaborative nodes. We exploit conventional cloud, decentralized cloudlets, and neighboring robots as collaborative nodes for computation offloading in support of a host robot’s task execution. More specifically, our proposed task allocation policy selects a suitable robot based on several key parameters, including robot availability, remaining energy, and task execution time. Furthermore, our proposed computation offloading strategy examines the suitability of collaborative nodes in terms of task response time and energy consumption and then chooses an appropriate collaborative node to conduct the requested computation. We introduce an adaptive resource allocation model and develop an analytical framework to evaluate the task allocation delay, energy consumption, and task response time for noncollaborative and collaborative task execution scheme across integrated fiber-wireless multirobot networks. The results show that the proposed collaborative task execution scheme outperforms the noncollaborative scheme in terms of task response time and energy consumption efficiency.

Context-Aware Task Migration for HART-Centric Collaboration over FiWi Based Tactile Internet Infrastructures

Abstract: Low task execution time and low energy consumption of collaborating mobile human users and robots are important requirements of emerging human-agent-robot teamwork (HART)-centric Tactile Internet applications. In particular, task migration among mobile HART members has emerged as an important research topic, taking different task types, task deadlines, collaborative node capabilities, and mobility patterns into account. We propose a context-aware task migration scheme for efficiently orchestrating the real-time collaboration among human mobile users, central and decentralized computational agents (cloud/cloudlets), and collaborative robots (cobots) across converged fiber-wireless (FiWi) communications infrastructures. We investigate the problem of whether and, if so, when and where a HART-centric task should be best migrated to. For resource-efficient task execution, the migration decision is made according to given task processing capabilities of cloud/cloudlet agents and cobots, task execution deadline, energy consumption of involved cobots and mobile devices, and task migration latency. We evaluate the performance of our context-aware HART-centric task migration scheme and compare it to conventional task execution without migration. Towards this end, we develop an analytical framework for quantifying its performance in terms of a variety of task migration key performance metrics, including task migration gain-overhead ratio, deadline-miss ratio, task response time, and energy consumption efficiency.

Local and Nonlocal Human-to-Robot Task Allocation in Fiber-Wireless Multi-Robot Networks

Abstract: Integrated fiber-wireless (FiWi) multi-robot networks will play a pivotal role in ensuring QoS for several human-to-robot (H2R) applications due to their coverage and capacity advantages. For the successful deployment of H2R applications, efficient task allocation among robots is essential, which has emerged as an interesting research topic by taking into account a wide variety of task and robot types, task location, robot availability, capability, and failure during task execution. To render the task allocation process more efficient, we propose a task allocation scheme for FiWi-based multi-robot networks according to several key design parameters such as the availability, skill set, distance to task location, and remaining energy of robots. Furthermore, to reduce failures during task execution, we introduce a neighboring robot-assisted failure reporting mechanism. We develop an analytical model to evaluate the network performance in terms of throughput, task allocation delay, execution time, and residual energy. In addition, we analyze the end-to-end delay performance for both local and nonlocal task allocation in integrated FiWi multi-robot networks. Our results show that minimum execution time-based selection outperforms traditional minimum distance and priority-based selection in terms of total task execution time and average residual energy.

A Comprehensive Survey on Fog Computing: State-of-the-Art and Research Challenges

Abstract: Cloud computing with its three key facets (i.e., Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service, and Software-as-a-Service) and its inherent advantages (e.g., elasticity and scalability) still faces several challenges. The distance between the cloud and the end devices might be an issue for latency-sensitive applications such as disaster management and content delivery applications. Service level agreements (SLAs) may also impose processing at locations where the cloud provider does not have data centers. Fog computing is a novel paradigm to address such issues. It enables provisioning resources and services outside the cloud, at the edge of the network, closer to end devices, or eventually, at locations stipulated by SLAs. Fog computing is not a substitute for cloud computing but a powerful complement. It enables processing at the edge while still offering the possibility to interact with the cloud. This paper presents a comprehensive survey on fog computing. It critically reviews the state of the art in the light of a concise set of evaluation criteria. We cover both the architectures and the algorithms that make fog systems. Challenges and research directions are also introduced. In addition, the lessons learned are reviewed and the prospects are discussed in terms of the key role fog is likely to play in emerging technologies such as tactile Internet.

A Survey of Blockchain Technology Applied to Smart Cities: Research Issues and Challenges

Abstract: In recent years, the rapid urbanization of world’s population causes many economic, social, and environmental problems, which affect people’s living conditions and quality of life significantly. The concept of “smart city” brings opportunities to solve these urban problems. The objectives of smart cities are to make the best use of public resources, provide high-quality services to the citizens, and improve the people’s quality of life. Information and communication technology plays an important role in the implementation of smart cities. Blockchain as an emerging technology has many good features, such as trust-free, transparency, pseudonymity, democracy, automation, decentralization, and security. These features of blockchain are helpful to improve smart city services and promote the development of smart cities. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey on the literature involving blockchain technology applied to smart cities. First, the related works and background knowledge are introduced. Then, we review how blockchain technology is applied in the realm of smart cities, from the perspectives of smart citizen, smart healthcare, smart grid, smart transportation, supply chain management, and others. Finally, some challenges and broader perspectives are discussed.

A Comprehensive Survey on Fog Computing: State-of-the-art and Research Challenges

Abstract: Cloud computing with its three key facets (i.e., IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS) and its inherent advantages (e.g., elasticity and scalability) still faces several challenges. The distance between the cloud and the end devices might be an issue for latency-sensitive applications such as disaster management and content delivery applications. Service Level Agreements (SLAs) may also impose processing at locations where the cloud provider does not have data centers. Fog computing is a novel paradigm to address such issues. It enables provisioning resources and services outside the cloud, at the edge of the network, closer to end devices or eventually, at locations stipulated by SLAs. Fog computing is not a substitute for cloud computing but a powerful complement. It enables processing at the edge while still offering the possibility to interact with the cloud. This article presents a comprehensive survey on fog computing. It critically reviews the state of the art in the light of a concise set of evaluation criteria. We cover both the architectures and the algorithms that make fog systems. Challenges and research directions are also introduced. In addition, the lessons learned are reviewed and the prospects are discussed in terms of the key role fog is likely to play in emerging technologies such as Tactile Internet.

Survey on Multi-Access Edge Computing for Internet of Things Realization

Abstract: The Internet of Things (IoT) has recently advanced from an experimental technology to what will become the backbone of future customer value for both product and service sector businesses. This underscores the cardinal role of IoT on the journey toward the fifth generation of wireless communication systems. IoT technologies augmented with intelligent and big data analytics are expected to rapidly change the landscape of myriads of application domains ranging from health care to smart cities and industrial automations. The emergence of multi-access edge computing (MEC) technology aims at extending cloud computing capabilities to the edge of the radio access network, hence providing real-time, high-bandwidth, low-latency access to radio network resources. IoT is identified as a key use case of MEC, given MEC’s ability to provide cloud platform and gateway services at the network edge. MEC will inspire the development of myriads of applications and services with demand for ultralow latency and high quality of service due to its dense geographical distribution and wide support for mobility. MEC is therefore an important enabler of IoT applications and services which require real-time operations. In this survey, we provide a holistic overview on the exploitation of MEC technology for the realization of IoT applications and their synergies. We further discuss the technical aspects of enabling MEC in IoT and provide some insight into various other integration technologies therein.