Driven by the visions of Internet of Things and 5G communications, recent years have seen a paradigm shift in mobile computing, from the centralized mobile cloud computing toward mobile edge computing (MEC). The main feature of MEC is to push mobile computing, network control and storage to the network edges (e.g., base stations and access points) so as to enable computation-intensive and latency-critical applications at the resource-limited mobile devices. MEC promises dramatic reduction in latency and mobile energy consumption, tackling the key challenges for materializing 5G vision. The promised gains of MEC have motivated extensive efforts in both academia and industry on developing the technology. A main thrust of MEC research is to seamlessly merge the two disciplines of wireless communications and mobile computing, resulting in a wide-range of new designs ranging from techniques for computation offloading to network architectures. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of the state-of-the-art MEC research with a focus on joint radio-and-computational resource management. We also discuss a set of issues, challenges, and future research directions for MEC research, including MEC system deployment, cache-enabled MEC, mobility management for MEC, green MEC, as well as privacy-aware MEC. Advancements in these directions will facilitate the transformation of MEC from theory to practice. Finally, we introduce recent standardization efforts on MEC as well as some typical MEC application scenarios.

A Survey on Mobile Edge Computing: The Communication Perspective

Driven by the visions of Internet of Things and 5G communications, recent years have seen a paradigm shift in mobile computing, from the centralized Mobile Cloud Computing towards Mobile Edge Computing (MEC). The main feature of MEC is to push mobile computing, network control and storage to the network edges (e.g., base stations and access points) so as to enable computation-intensive and latency-critical applications at the resource-limited mobile devices. MEC promises dramatic reduction in latency and mobile energy consumption, tackling the key challenges for materializing 5G vision. The promised gains of MEC have motivated extensive efforts in both academia and industry on developing the technology. A main thrust of MEC research is to seamlessly merge the two disciplines of wireless communications and mobile computing, resulting in a wide-range of new designs ranging from techniques for computation offloading to network architectures. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of the state-of-the-art MEC research with a focus on joint radio-and-computational resource management. We also present a research outlook consisting of a set of promising directions for MEC research, including MEC system deployment, cache-enabled MEC, mobility management for MEC, green MEC, as well as privacy-aware MEC. Advancements in these directions will facilitate the transformation of MEC from theory to practice. Finally, we introduce recent standardization efforts on MEC as well as some typical MEC application scenarios.

Mobile Edge Computing, Fog et al.: A Survey and Analysis of Security Threats and Challenges

5G is envisioned to be a multi-service network supporting a wide range of verticals with a diverse set of performance and service requirements. Slicing a single physical network into multiple isolated logical networks has emerged as a key to realizing this vision. This article is meant to act as a survey, the first to the authors� knowledge, on this topic of prime interest. We begin by reviewing the state of the art in 5G network slicing and present a framework for bringing together and discussing existing work in a holistic manner. Using this framework, we evaluate the maturity of current proposals and identify a number of open research questions.

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Network Slicing in 5G: Survey and Challenges

All one needs to know about fog computing and related edge computing paradigms: A complete survey

In this paper, we provide a revolutionary vision of 5G networks, in which SDN technologies are used for the programmability of the wireless network, and where a NFV-ready network store is provided to Mobile Network Operators (MNO), Enterprises, and Over-The-Top (OTT) third parties. The proposed network serves as a digital distribution platform of programmable Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs) that enables 5G application use-cases. Currently existing application stores, such as Apple's App Store for iOS applications, Google's Play Store for Android, or Ubuntu's Software Center, deliver applications to user specific software platforms. Our vision is to provide a digital marketplace, gathering 5G enabling Network Applications and Network Functions, written to run on top of commodity cloud infrastructures, connected to remote radio heads (RRH). The 5G Network Store will be the same to the network provider as the application store is currently to a software platform.

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Network Store: Exploring Slicing in Future 5G Networks

The upcoming 5G ecosystem is envisioned to build business-driven network slices to accommodate the different needs of divergent service types, applications, and services in support of vertical industries. In this article, we describe the network slicing concept by unveiling a novel network slicing architecture for integrated 5G communications. Further, we demonstrate its realization for the case of evolved LTE using state-of-the-art technologies. Finally, we elaborate on the LTE-specific requirements toward 5G, and point out existing challenges and open issues.

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Network Slices toward 5G Communications: Slicing the LTE Network

In this work, we present novel Architectural Design Patterns towards open, cloud-based 5G communications. We provide a brief classification of technologies that cannot be ignored in the design process of 5G systems and illustrate how a new technological added value can be created, when current methodologies, design paradigms, as well as design patterns and their extensions are properly exploited in efficient Radio Access Network (RAN) architectures. We believe that in many cases, the required technology is already there; nevertheless the correct approach has to be worked out and placed within an appropriate context, especially in the case of the integration of complex RAN systems. The enhancements in RF optimization, the progress in cloud computing, Software Defined Networks (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV), new design concepts such as Network Slicing have to become part of the RAN design methodology. Diverse architectural concepts should break existing stereotypes to pave the way towards the true 5G system integration.

5G Architectural Design Patterns

Towards 5G mobile networks, the low-latency and high-bandwidth services are highly anticipated; however, legacy 3G and 4G networks now suffers from the mobile data surge. In this sense, pushing network services to the network edge has the potential to improve the traffic latency, user experience, and offload Internet traffic. Although the LTE/LTE-A network can highly benefit from the Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) principle, a detailed MEC architecture is not currently in place. In this work, we propose a modular architecture for the Mobile Edge Host that is ETSI compliant and describe the functional mapping of the architecture to LTE systems. Proof-of-concept demonstrations based on the OpenAirInterface (OAI), a software implementation of LTE/LTE-A systems, present significant benefits of adopting the MEC concept in data caching use case.

MEC architectural implications for LTE/LTE-A networks

In this paper we focus on the problem of multidomain orchestration for Network Function Virtualization (NFV), over multi-technology environments. In order to facilitate service deployment in end-to-end setups, new orchestration designs are required that exploit and advance existing methodologies. We examine in detail the challenges on multi-domain NFV orchestration for the general case and we provide the current landscape and existing technologies. We also describe a reference architecture for the problem of multi-domain NFV orchestration, that also supports the concept of Network Slicing. Finally, we present a realization of the architecture proposed for the LTE network and we describe a use case with LTE-specific considerations.

Kostas Katsalis

Papers

Network Store: Exploring Slicing in Future 5G Networks

Network Slices toward 5G Communications: Slicing the LTE Network

5G Architectural Design Patterns

MEC architectural implications for LTE/LTE-A networks

Multi-Domain Orchestration for NFV: Challenges and Research Directions