Mobile operators are in need of means to cope with the ever increasing mobile data traffic, introducing minimal additional capital expenditures on existing infrastructures, principally due to the ...modest average revenue per user. Network virtualization and cloud computing techniques, along with the principles of the latter in terms of service elasticity, on-demand, and payper-use, could be important enablers for various mobile network enhancements and cost reduction. This article discusses the recent trends the mobile telecommunications market is experiencing, showcasing some of the emerging consumer products and services that are facilitating such trends. The article also discusses the challenges these trends present to mobile network operators. It also demonstrates the possibility of extending cloud computing beyond data centers toward the mobile end user, providing end-to-end mobile connectivity as a cloud service. The article introduces a set of technologies and methods for on-demand provision of a decentralized and elastic mobile network as a cloud service over a distributed network of cloud computing data centers. The concept of Follow-Me-Cloud, whereby not only data but also mobile services intelligently follow their respective users, is also introduced. The novel business opportunities behind the envisioned carrier cloud architecture and service are also discussed, considering various multi-stakeholder scenarios.
As 5G enters a stable phase in terms of system architecture, 3GPP Release 17 starts to investigate advanced features that would shape the evolution toward 6G. This paper provides an insightful ...analysis for mobile networks Beyond 5G (B5G) considering the advancements and implications introduced by the evolution of softwarization, agile control and deterministic services. It elaborates the 5G landscape, also investigating new business prospects and the emerging use cases, which will open new horizons for accelerating the market penetration of vertical services. It then overviews the key technologies that constitute the pillars for the evolution beyond 5G considering new radio paradigms, micro-service oriented core network, native IP based user plane, network analytics and the support of the low latency- high reliability transport layer. The open challenges considering both technical and business aspects are then overviewed, elaborating the footprint of softwarization, security and trust as well as distributed architectures and services toward 6G.
Along with the development of 5G, NS plays an important role in the application of mobile networks to meet all kinds of personalized requirements. In terms of NS concept, network operators can ...vertically split a physical network into multiple logically separate networks to flexibly meet QoS requirements, which are mainly represented as higher bandwidth and lower latency. In this article, we propose a novel QoS framework of NS in 5G and beyond networks based on SDN and NFV to guarantee key QoS indicators for different application scenarios, such as eMBB, mMTC and URLLC. In this QoS framework, a 5G network is divided into three parts, RAN, TN and CN, to form three types of NS with different network resource allocation algorithms. The performance evaluation in the simulation environment of Mininet shows that the proposed QoS framework can steer different flows into different queues of OVS, schedule network resources for various NS types and provide reliable E2E QoS for users according to preconfigured QoS requirements.
The Internet of Things (IoT) has recently advanced from an experimental technology to what will become the backbone of future customer value for both product and service sector businesses. This ...underscores the cardinal role of IoT on the journey toward the fifth generation of wireless communication systems. IoT technologies augmented with intelligent and big data analytics are expected to rapidly change the landscape of myriads of application domains ranging from health care to smart cities and industrial automations. The emergence of multi-access edge computing (MEC) technology aims at extending cloud computing capabilities to the edge of the radio access network, hence providing real-time, high-bandwidth, low-latency access to radio network resources. IoT is identified as a key use case of MEC, given MEC's ability to provide cloud platform and gateway services at the network edge. MEC will inspire the development of myriads of applications and services with demand for ultralow latency and high quality of service due to its dense geographical distribution and wide support for mobility. MEC is therefore an important enabler of IoT applications and services which require real-time operations. In this survey, we provide a holistic overview on the exploitation of MEC technology for the realization of IoT applications and their synergies. We further discuss the technical aspects of enabling MEC in IoT and provide some insight into various other integration technologies therein.
In comparison with cloud computing, edge computing offers processing at locations closer to end devices and reduces the user experienced latency. The new recent paradigm of innetwork computing ...employs programmable network elements to compute on the path and prior to traffic reaching the edge or cloud servers. It advances common edge/cloud server based computing through proposing line rate processing capabilities at closer locations to the end devices. This paper discusses use cases, enabler technologies and protocols for in-network computing. According to our study, considering programmable data plane as an enabler technology, potential in-network computing applications are in-network analytics, in-network caching, innetwork security, and in-network coordination. There are also technology specific applications of in-network computing in the scopes of cloud computing, edge computing, 5G/6G, and NFV. In this survey, the state of the art, in the framework of the proposed categorization, is reviewed. Furthermore, comparisons are provided in terms of a set of proposed criteria which assess the methods from the aspects of methodology, main results, as well as application-specific criteria. Finally, we discuss lessons learned and highlight some potential research directions.
The amount of data generated by sensors, actuators, and other devices in the Internet of Things (IoT) has substantially increased in the last few years. IoT data are currently processed in the cloud, ...mostly through computing resources located in distant data centers. As a consequence, network bandwidth and communication latency become serious bottlenecks. This paper advocates edge computing for emerging IoT applications that leverage sensor streams to augment interactive applications. First, we classify and survey current edge computing architectures and platforms, then describe key IoT application scenarios that benefit from edge computing. Second, we carry out an experimental evaluation of edge computing and its enabling technologies in a selected use case represented by mobile gaming. To this end, we consider a resource-intensive 3-D application as a paradigmatic example and evaluate the response delay in different deployment scenarios. Our experimental results show that edge computing is necessary to meet the latency requirements of applications involving virtual and augmented reality. We conclude by discussing what can be achieved with current edge computing platforms and how emerging technologies will impact on the deployment of future IoT applications.
Multi-access edge computing (MEC) is an emerging ecosystem, which aims at converging telecommunication and IT services, providing a cloud computing platform at the edge of the radio access network. ...MEC offers storage and computational resources at the edge, reducing latency for mobile end users and utilizing more efficiently the mobile backhaul and core networks. This paper introduces a survey on MEC and focuses on the fundamental key enabling technologies. It elaborates MEC orchestration considering both individual services and a network of MEC platforms supporting mobility, bringing light into the different orchestration deployment options. In addition, this paper analyzes the MEC reference architecture and main deployment scenarios, which offer multitenancy support for application developers, content providers, and third parties. Finally, this paper overviews the current standardization activities and elaborates further on open research challenges.
The past few years have witnessed a remarkable rise in interest in driver-less cars; and naturally, in parallel, the demand for an accurate and reliable object localization and mapping system is ...higher than ever. Such a system would have to provide its subscribers with precise information within close range. There have been many previous research works that have explored the different possible approaches to implement such a highly dynamic mapping system in an intelligent transportation system setting, but few have discussed its applicability toward enabling other 5G verticals and services. In this article we start by describing the concept of dynamic maps. We then introduce the approach we took when creating a spatio-temporal dynamic maps system by presenting its architecture and different components. After that, we propose different scenarios where this fairly new and modern technology can be adapted to serve other 5G services, in particular, that of UAV geofencing, and finally, we test the object detection module and discuss the results.
Recently, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, have attracted a lot of attention, since they represent a new potential market. Along with the maturity of the technology and relevant ...regulations, a worldwide deployment of these UAVs is expected. Thanks to the high mobility of drones, they can be used to provide a lot of applications, such as service delivery, pollution mitigation, farming, and in the rescue operations. Due to its ubiquitous usability, the UAV will play an important role in the Internet of Things (IoT) vision, and it may become the main key enabler of this vision. While these UAVs would be deployed for specific objectives (e.g., service delivery), they can be, at the same time, used to offer new IoT value-added services when they are equipped with suitable and remotely controllable machine type communications (MTCs) devices (i.e., sensors, cameras, and actuators). However, deploying UAVs for the envisioned purposes cannot be done before overcoming the relevant challenging issues. These challenges comprise not only technical issues, such as physical collision, but also regulation issues as this nascent technology could be associated with problems like breaking the privacy of people or even use it for illegal operations like drug smuggling. Providing the communication to UAVs is another challenging issue facing the deployment of this technology. In this paper, a comprehensive survey on the UAVs and the related issues will be introduced. In addition, our envisioned UAV-based architecture for the delivery of UAV-based value-added IoT services from the sky will be introduced, and the relevant key challenges and requirements will be presented.
A sophisticated and efficient network slicing architecture is needed to support the orchestration of network slices across multiple administrative domains. Such multi-domain architecture shall be ...agnostic of the underlying virtualization and network infrastructure technologies. Its objective is to extend the traditional orchestration, management and control capabilities by means of models and constructs in order to form a well-stitched composition of network slices. To facilitate such a composition of networking and compute/storage resources, this article introduces a management and orchestration architecture that incorporates Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) components to the basic 3GPP network slice management. The proposed architecture is broadly divided into four major strata, namely the Multi-domain Service Conductor Stratum, Domain-specific Fully- Fledged Orchestration Stratum, Sub-Domain MANO and Connectivity Stratum, and Logical Multi-domain Slice Instance stratum. Each of these strata is described in detail, providing the fundamental operational specifics for instantiating and managing the resulting federated network slices.
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