Vol.:(0123456789) Discover Internet of Things (2022) 2:4 | https://doi.org/10.1007/s43926-022-00024-z 1 3 Discover Internet of Things Research An energy‑aware application module for the fog‑based internet of military things Bashir Yusuf Bichi 1  · Saif ul Islam 2  · Anas Maazu Kademi 3  · Ishfaq Ahmad 4 Received: 29 April 2022 / Accepted: 7 June 2022 © The Author(s) 2022 OPEN Abstract Smart devices in various application areas are becoming increasingly prevalent for efcient handling of multiple critical activities. One such area of interest is high-security militarized environments. Due to military zones’ harsh and unpredict- able nature, monitoring devices deployed in such environments must operate without power interruption for extended time periods. Therefore, it is essential to choose an appropriate application design for operating these “things” in the internet of things (IoT) environment such that energy can be conserved throughout the operating span of an application. This paper presents two application modules and analyzes their performance in terms of energy conservation consider- ing a military-based IoT-Fog architecture. The two modules are: A sequential application module, and a master-worker application module. Experimental results show that the master-worker module incurs lower energy consumption and communication overhead than the sequential application module. Signifcantly, the master-worker module exhibits a lower delay in tuple execution by almost four milliseconds while also accounting for lower simulation time and higher network utilization. The module achieves signifcant savings in energy consumption, making it more efective in handling smart devices. Keywords Fog computing · IoT · Master-worker module · Military-based IoT · Sequential module 1 Introduction The internet of things (IoT) is ubiquitous and is changing the way we live and work. Applications of the IoT are becom- ing popular in a myriad of felds of life, including education, health, transportation, security, and surveillance [1]. The IoT is a network of heterogeneous devices capable of capturing and sharing information without human intervention [2]. IoT networks are classifed as cyber-physical systems of interaction between the abstract cyber system and the physical environment using the Internet [2]. The aim is to allow these things to autonomously acquire vital information from the deployment area [3]. For instance, smart devices can be deployed on roadsides and surveillance cameras to help track ofenses or violations of trafc rules [4, 5]. Moreover, these things can prove to be a signifcant source of information in the military environment due to the distinct operations, such as smart surveillance and monitoring activities. For instance, Dastjerdi and Buyya [6] describe * Saif ul Islam, saifu2004@gmail.com; saif.islam@mail.ist.edu.pk; Bashir Yusuf Bichi, byusufbichi@gmail.com; Anas Maazu Kademi, anas.kademi@yasar.edu.tr; Ishfaq Ahmad, iahmad@cse.uta.edu | 1 Department of Computer Science, COMSATS University Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan. 2 Department of Computer Science, Institute of Space Technology, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan. 3 Department of Management Information Systems, Yasar University, No 37-39 Bornova, Izmir, Turkey. 4 Department of Computer Science and Engineering, The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, USA.