Integrated backup–standby switching and abort policies for collaborative IoT edge–cloud systems

Internet of Things (IoT) edge–cloud systems are susceptible to internal component degradation and stochastic external cyber shocks during persistent data processing missions. To address the coupled risks of internal degradation and external cyber shocks, this study establishes an integrated decision framework that unifies mission abort and periodic backup mechanisms. For edge data uploading subsystems, a mission abort policy activated by the cumulative shock threshold is proposed to abort risky data transmission in advance; for cloud backup subsystems adopting warm standby configurations, a mission-driven periodic incremental backup strategy with dynamic backup–standby switching is developed. Distinct from standard system survivability metrics, a novel data security level is defined and evaluated via a unified state-propagation operator that ensures probability mass conservation across all operating-mode evolutions. Based on this framework, mission success probability and data survivability are analytically derived. Extensive numerical experiments and Monte Carlo simulations are conducted to verify the mathematical model. The results demonstrate that the joint optimization of mission abort thresholds and periodic backup cycles effectively ensures the reliability of data execution under complex operating conditions.