A Survey on Mobile Edge Networks: Convergence of Computing, Caching and Communications

TLDR

Mobile edge networks address the explosive growth of smart devices and traffic by bringing cloud computing and caching to the network edge, alleviating backhaul burden and reducing latency. This survey exhaustively reviews state‑of‑the‑art research on mobile edge networks. The authors provide an overview of mobile edge network architecture, survey computing, caching, and communication techniques, and discuss key enablers such as cloud technology, SDN/NFV, and smart devices. The survey highlights applications and use cases of mobile edge networks and outlines open research challenges and future directions.

Abstract

As the explosive growth of smart devices and the advent of many new applications, traffic volume has been growing exponentially. The traditional centralized network architecture cannot accommodate such user demands due to heavy burden on the backhaul links and long latency. Therefore, new architectures which bring network functions and contents to the network edge are proposed, i.e., mobile edge computing and caching. Mobile edge networks provide cloud computing and caching capabilities at the edge of cellular networks. In this survey, we make an exhaustive review on the state-of-the-art research efforts on mobile edge networks. We first give an overview of mobile edge networks including definition, architecture and advantages. Next, a comprehensive survey of issues on computing, caching and communication techniques at the network edge is presented respectively. The applications and use cases of mobile edge networks are discussed. Subsequently, the key enablers of mobile edge networks such as cloud technology, SDN/NFV and smart devices are discussed. Finally, open research challenges and future directions are presented as well.