On Multi-Access Edge Computing: A Survey of the Emerging 5G Network Edge Cloud Architecture and Orchestration

TLDR

Multi‑access edge computing (MEC) is an emerging ecosystem that converges telecom and IT services, providing edge cloud platforms that offer storage, computation, and reduced latency for mobile users while improving backhaul and core network efficiency. The paper surveys MEC, focusing on its fundamental enabling technologies. The survey examines MEC orchestration across individual services and networks, analyzes reference architecture and deployment scenarios supporting multitenancy, and reviews standardization efforts and open research challenges.

Abstract

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.