Fog-to-cloud Computing (F2C): The key technology enabler for dependable e-health services deployment

Fog Computing recently came up as an extension of cloud computing to facilitate the development of IoT services with strong requirements in latency, security while minimizing the traffic load in the network. The stack of resources set by putting together fog and cloud premises has been recently coined as Fog-to-Cloud (F2C) computing, and has been positioned as an innovative computing paradigm best matching current and foreseen IoT services demands. This paper emphasizes the benefits F2C may bring to a particular health area, namely COPD, whose patients' quality of life intensely depends on the patients mobility. We argue that by enriching current breath assistance systems for COPD patients with F2C capacities, the patients may comfortably afford physical activities, therefore impacting on reducing not only patients deterioration but also the re-admission incidence rate IRR) with a clear impact on the health costs as well.