LivingFog is the fog computing platform developed by the FogGuru European project. It allows users to connect IoT devices using the LoRa long-distance wireless protocol to local clusters of Raspberry PIs where data can be processed.
Benefits
How does LivingFog work?
Owing to the LoRa architecture, sensors or actuators send or receive data to/from so-called LoRa gateways. Thanks to the LivingFog system, each LoRa gateway may be equipped with its own set of local dedicated fog nodes which run both the necessary software to receive data from the LoRa network, and also the user-level applications to process the received data. If necessary, the pre-processed data may be sent to cloud servers for final processing and/or visual interpretation.
The whole system is essentially split in three layers: LoRa sensors and gateways, Raspberry Pi Clusters and Central cloud server. No specific software is installed on LoRa gateways and sensors, but they need to be configured.
The Raspberry PIs are organized in a number of clusters, where each cluster is attached to one or more LoRa gateway(s). The Raspberry Pi clusters are then configured to use Kubernetes, which itself manages all the necessary software stack.
A complete LivingFog deployment contains multiple such Kubernetes clusters which contain the necessary data workflows to receive incoming data, stream them as MQTT streams, and also stores data in an InfluxDB database for long-term storage. The Kubernetes clusters also have the necessary software for system monitoring using Prometheus. NodeRed is a simple application development which enables users to design their data processing logic in a graphical way. Finally, the cloud server allows administrators to visualize their system using Grafana.
Use cases
Use case #1: Smart water management
Potable water is a precious resource in many regions of the world, and particularly in semi-desertic areas such as the South of Spain. Over the previous decade, EMIVASA, a public-private company in charge of water management in the city of València, has been active at the forefront of IoT technologies. EMIVASA deployed more than 420,000 smart water meters in every household which periodically report their readings to data centers through wireless networking technologies. The transferred data are then processed in various ways such as detecting water leaks or other incidents leading to abnormal water usage, which in turn brings considerable efficiency improvements to the management of precious water resources. However, this system relies on 15-years-old technologies. FogGuru used LivingFog to ensure transition to more modern and open technologies.
Benefits
- Optimized water consumption: water leaks and abnormal water usage can be detected within minutes instead of days
- Quick and accurate management decisions in case of a water leak
- Monitor water consumption of all users in real-time
- Citizens can be made aware of their consumption
- The system is totally independent from any vendors
Use case #2: IoT FabLab
LivingFog is the technological heart of the IoT Fabrication Laboratory (FabLab) in Las Naves, València, a place where anyone can invent new ways to manage and utilize smart-city data. We installed a broad range of IoT sensors and a complete fog computing infrastructure at La Marina de València collecting a variety of useful data including water quality, weather, height of the sea waves inside the harbor, people and car counters entering and exiting the area, etc.
The FabLab was kickstarted during the HackTheFog hackathon during which 63 participants from 10 countries around the world exploited the deployed LivingFog system to process live data from the IoT sensors, software for development of innovative fog computing applications. A vast majority of them rated LivingFog as excellent and would consider using it for their own future IoT/Fog Computing projects, or recommending it to their colleagues.
Resources
Brochure Code repository Technical documentation
Contact
For any question about the LivingFog software, please contact us at contact@fogguru.eu.