A Markov Chain Based Framework for Analysis of Hierarchical Fog Computing Networks Niyas K. Haneefa, S. Pramod, Shagnik Pal and R. Manivasakan Abstract Next-generation wireless networks are envisaged to provide end-users ubiquitous low-latency computing services using devices at the network edge and machines before reaching the core cloud network. The crucial concepts of driving this technology are to offload computationally intensive tasks from users to edge or fog devices. The mobile edge network consists of an access point (AP), Radio Access Network (RAN), devices, edge servers, fog servers and finally the core cloud network. Given that fog computing is an emerging technology, it is imperative to study the performance of such systems analytically. Though there are many papers on performance analysis, many of them provide heuristic, ad-hoc solutions or pose it as optimization problems. In this work, we model a hierarchical fog architecture us- ing Markov chain analysis and compare it with a flat fog architecture by investigating the different performance measures analytically and by simulation. Keywords Fog computing · Hierarchical · Markov analysis · Omnet++ 1 Introduction It is envisaged that, by 2020, the Internet of Things (IoT) would connect over 50 bil- lion things worldwide [1–3]. To meet the low latency requirement of task computation for not just IoT devices, but also mobile user equipment, relying on conventional, N. K. Haneefa · S. Pramod (B ) · S. Pal · R. Manivasakan Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Chennai 600036, India e-mail: pramodachar769@gmail.com N. K. Haneefa e-mail: niyaskhaneefa@gmail.com S. Pal e-mail: shagnikpal99@gmail.com R. Manivasakan e-mail: rmani@ee.iitm.ac.in © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 K. J. Kim and H.-Y. Kim (eds.), Information Science and Applications, Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering 621, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1465-4_5 41