Introducing Mobile Edge Computing Capabilities through Distributed 5G Cloud Enabled Small Cells (original) (raw)

The emergence of operator-neutral small cells as a strong case for cloud computing at the mobile edge

Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technologies, 2016

Small cells have emerged as a useful tool for supporting increased network capacity through network densification, but they can also be used to support edge cloud computing services. In this paper, we provide a preview of an innovative concept that tackles the consolidation of multi-tenancy in such type communications infrastructures, as well as the placement of network intelligence and applications in the network edge. After surveing the challenges and the enabling technologies, we present the envisaged architecture to manage and control the Cloud-Enabled Small Cell infrastructure. Also, at the operation level, we explain the potential advantages of adopting the proposed solutions on the long-term evolution access networks.

Deployment of edge servers in 5G cellular networks

Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technologies, 2020

With the rapid development of Internet of Things technology and interactive applications, the number of terminal devices in the network is increasing, and the development of interactive applications is hindered by network delay. To solve the network delay, bandwidth, and workload requirements in the new era, edge computing came into being. Edge computing aims to implement computing, storage, communication, and other services at the edge of the network by sinking cloud services from the core network to the edge of the network. Current research studies pay less attention to the impact of edge server location on the system performance, and edge server deployment is one of the key technologies for mobile edge computing. Therefore, we take 5G macrocellular/microcellular cluster as the edge server deployment scenario, propose an equivalent bandwidth-based deployment strategy, establish a mathematical model for edge server deployment, and contract a task experience function as an evaluation index from two aspects: task time and energy overhead. Based on the analysis of the experimental results, it is verified that the deployment strategy based on equivalent bandwidth is superior to other deployment strategies in terms of terminal device task overhead.

SPECIAL SECTION ON MOBILE EDGE COMPUTING AND MOBILE CLOUD COMPUTING: ADDRESSING HETEROGENEITY AND ENERGY ISSUES OF COMPUTE AND NETWORK RESOURCES Edge Computing in 5G: A Review

5G is the next generation cellular network that aspires to achieve substantial improvement on quality of service, such as higher throughput and lower latency. Edge computing is an emerging technology that enables the evolution to 5G by bringing cloud capabilities near to the end users (or user equipment, UEs) in order to overcome the intrinsic problems of the traditional cloud, such as high latency and the lack of security. In this paper, we establish a taxonomy of edge computing in 5G, which gives an overview of existing state-of-the-art solutions of edge computing in 5G on the basis of objectives, computational platforms, attributes, 5G functions, performance measures, and roles. We also present other important aspects, including the key requirements for its successful deployment in 5G and the applications of edge computing in 5G. Then, we explore, highlight, and categorize recent advancements in edge computing for 5G. By doing so, we reveal the salient features of different edge computing paradigms for 5G. Finally, open research issues are outlined.

Enabling technologies and benefits of multi-tenant multi-service 5G Small Cells

2016 European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC), 2016

In this manuscript, we present the main concepts of the 5G-PPP SESAME project dedicated to the implementation of Cloud-Enabled Small Cells (CESCs), able to support edge cloud computing in a multi-tenant, multi-service ecosystem. More particularly, we give a preview of the SESAME concept at the component/sub-system, system and operation level. At the component/sub-system level, we detail our plan to deploy multioperator enabled small cells, enhanced with a virtualised execution platform for 5G. At the system level, we present the envisaged architecture to manage and control the cloud-enabled small cell infrastructure. Finally, at the operation level, we explain the potential advantages of adopting the SESAME concept on the 5G access networks.

A Cloud-Enabled Small Cell Architecture in 5G Networks for Broadcast/Multicast Services

IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting

The evolution of 5G suggests that communication networks become sufficiently flexible to handle a wide variety of network services from various domains. The virtualization of small cells as envisaged by 5G, allows enhanced mobile edge computing capabilities, thus enabling network service deployment and management near the end user. This paper presents a cloud-enabled small cell architecture for 5G networks developed within the 5G-ESSENCE project. This paper also presents the conformity of the proposed architecture to the evolving 5G radio resource management architecture. Furthermore, it examines the inclusion of an edge enabler to support a variety of virtual network functions in 5G networks. Next, the improvement of specific key performance indicators in a public safety use case is evaluated. Finally, the performance of a 5G enabled evolved multimedia broadcast multicast services service is evaluated.

Benefits and Challenges of Cloud Technologies for 5G Architecture

2015 IEEE 81st Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC Spring), 2015

This paper focuses on the practical implementation of a Cloud-RAN architecture in the context of future 5G systems, with particular emphasis on different aspects of the functional split between the cloud platform and the radio access points. First, we provide a comprehensive overview of implementation aspects and how different hardware options impact the implementation of RAN functionality. We further discuss a virtualized infrastructure which may have a significant impact on how algorithms are implemented, how they interact with each other, and how they can be scaled within the RAN. We also analyze implementation constraints to be considered to provide backwards compatibility with 3GPP LTE; such constraints on the computing platforms result from the RAN requirements in terms of latency and throughput. Finally, the level of flexibility achievable by the proposed architecture is described from a practical point of view.

Multi-Access Edge Computing Deployments for 5G Networks

INTERNATIONAL ENGINEERING CONFERENCE IEC 2019, 2019

The growth of the telecommunication industry is fast-paced with groundbreaking engineering achievements. Notwithstanding the technological advancement in the industry, it had continued to cope with the phenomenon of resource constraint in portable mobile telecommunication devices compared to fixed and tethered devices. Portable mobile handheld devices have very low computational, storage and energy carrying capacity occasioned by the needs to satisfy portability, very small form factor, ergonomics, style and trends. Solutions such as cloudlets, cyber foraging, mobile cloud computing (MCC), and more recently but most applicable, multi-access edge computing (MEC) have been proffered with different application methodologies including computational offloading, distributed computing, thin clients, middleware, mobile environment cloning as well as representational state transfer. There is a need to satisfy requirements of new and emerging use cases, especially the deployments of 5G coming up with applications such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), intelligent transport systems (ITS), connected autonomous vehicle (CAV), smart hospitals, ultra high definition multi-feed live streaming, etc. The usage patterns of most of these different applications, though not always, is ephemeral and on-demand, except that the demand will be numerous, huge, asymmetric and highly latency-sensitive in terms of needs for computation, storage and analytics while at the fringe of the network where data are being generated and results being applied. In this research, we evaluated 5G end-to-end transport for vantage location of MEC server to achieve low user plane latency.

The Role of Virtualization in the Small Cell Enabled Mobile Edge Computing Ecosystem

Communications in Computer and Information Science, 2017

Virtualisation is playing a fundamental role in the evolution of telecommunication services and infrastructures, bringing to rethink some of the traditional design paradigms of the mobile network and enabling those functionalities necessary for supporting new complex ecosystems where multiple actors can participate in a dynamic and secure environment. In Small Cell enabled Mobile Edge Computing deployments, the impact of virtualization technologies is significant in two main aspects: the design and deployment of the telecommunication infrastructure, and the delivery of edge services. Besides, the adoption of virtualization technologies has implications also in the implementation of Self Organizing Network (SON) services and in the enforcement of Service Level Agreement (SLA) policies, both critical in the automation of the delivery of multi-tenant oriented services in such complex infrastructure. From the work performed by the H2020 SESAME project, the beneficial use of virtualization techniques emerges in adding network intelligence and services in the network edge. SESAME relays on virtualization for providing Small Cell as a Service (SCaaS) and per operator Edge Computing services, consolidating the emerging multi-tenancy driven design paradigms in communication infrastructures.

5G Radio Access Networks: Centralized RAN, Cloud-RAN, and Virtualization of Small Cells

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Dynamic Allocation of Processing Resources in Cloud-RAN for a Virtualised 5G Mobile Network

2018 26th European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO), 2018

One of the main research directions for 5G mobile networks is resource virtualisation and slicing. Towards this goal, the Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN) architecture offers mobile operators a flexible and dynamic framework for managing resources and processing data. This paper proposes a dynamic allocation approach for processing resources in a C- RAN supported by the concept of Network Function Vitualisation (NFV). To achieve this objective, we virtualised the Baseband Unit (BBU) resources for Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile network into a BBU pool supported by Linux Container (LXC) technology. We report on experiments conducted in the Iris testbed with high-definition video streaming by implementing Software-Defined Radio (SDR)-based LTE functionality with the virtualised BBU pool. Our results show a significant improvement in the quality of the video transmission with this dynamic allocation approach.