As enterprise applications have widely adopted the Internet of Things (IoT), it has also increased the dependency on smartphones and computers. This, in turn, results in overload on 4G LTE (3GPP Long Term Evolution is referred to as LTE, a standard for high-speed data wireless communication for mobile phones and data terminals).
Needless to say, it has embarked on the network demands, and as a result, the 5G network is in high demand. It is expected that the 5g technology features will keep pace with the ongoing demands. Interestingly 5g is not a single technology, and mobile edge computing is one of the most important technologies used in 5g.
However, how mobile edge computing in 5G will help its performance enhancement is directly related to two factors:
1.What we are expecting from the 5G network
2. What actually mobile edge computing technology offers.
To clarify that we need to look into key features of both the aspects.
Related post – What is Edge Computing?
Understanding Mobile edge computing
With the increased reliance on mobile devices, mobile operators also want to offload the data and technical aspects on the clouds to provide better performance. However, it is a costly affair. To reduce the latency and cost issue, the concept of edge computing comes into the picture. This brings cloud computing closer to the network and users.
Mobile edge computing is based on the edge computing technology concept where a cloud server runs at the edge of a mobile network. It performs specific tasks which are usually could not be achieved with traditional network infrastructure. Some characteristics of mobile edge computing are –
-On-premises service means it acts as an isolated system from the network while connected with other network resources.
-Configured at the close proximity of the devices.
-Facilitates lower latency due to the close proximity
-Location awareness
-Provides information on real-time network data
Mobile edge computing (MEC) offers a highly distributed computing environment to deploy services and applications. Additionally, it provides data storage within the edge of the mobile Radio Access Network (RAN). Also, MEC servers are deployed on a generic computing platform within the RAN.
MEC offers various network improvements. For example -
-It hosts compute-intensive applications at the network edge, which ultimately optimize the mobile resources.
-It helps in pre-processing of large data before sending it to the cloud.
-Provides real-time information on cell load, user location, bandwidth, etc.
The key element of Mobile edge computing is a Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) application server, which integrates with the base station. Similar to any cloud infrastructure, COTS provides essential services like computing resources, storage, and connectivity. Besides, it plays a critical role in enhancing the user experience by providing access to radio network information and user traffic to the application providers. Additionally, it provides services like real-time analytics.
Now let’s asses 5G network capability
What are 5G network features?
The 5th generation of network or 5G is a combination of technologies and methods expected to meet the extreme performance and capacity of a mobile network. From a user perspective, one can expect ‘no latency, gigabit experience’ as per the theoretical claim. In a nutshell, 5g network features are expected to provide:
-Faster download and upload speeds up to 20 Gbps
-Terminal localization within 1 meter
-Smoother streaming of online content with less than 1ms latency
-Higher-quality voice and video calls
-More reliable mobile connections where mobility is expected as fast as at 500 km/hour
-More than a trillion of connected IoT devices or M2M (Machine to machine) connectivity
-Connectivity of 20 million of user devices
-Expansion of advanced technologies - including self-driving cars and smart cities
How will Mobile edge computing help to optimize 5G network features?
Meets low latency requirement: One of the key 5g network features is low latency, which mobile edge computing can meet perfectly. The reason behind it is it will be implemented at the base station through general computing machines. This will allow the application execution close to the users.
Offloading volume: As the mobile edge machines will be placed near the base station, it will reduce the volume of signal offloading. This means enhanced network performance.
Virtualization and facilitating monetizing for the vendors: The packaging design of mobile edge computing facilitates the deployment and portability across different mobile edge computing platforms. This means vendors can allow third parties to use the base station, a monetization scope.
Real-time network information: Radio Network Information Services (RNIS) works as one of the mobile edge computing applications services. This allows the hosting of cloud application services alongside mobile network elements. Besides, it leverages the real-time network and radio information. Thus it will enable the vendors about the real-time network information, including
-The cell load
-Subscriber-specific bandwidth
-Subscriber location
Hence, it will help the mobile operator offload from the core network, which will reduce network congestion.
True potential in Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual reality (VR) services: These are the two core areas expected to get true potential through the introduction of the 5G network. Because to get the real essence of AR and VR, the following network criteria are essential –
-Higher bandwidth to handle emerging video formats especially 360-degree format.
-Very high network speed which is almost Gbps/sec
-Almost zero latency
-Stable and consistent signal strength.
Not to mention, all the above are the criteria for a 5G network too. Now, as mobile edge computing provision is localized, it provides a speedy modification of any live presentation in the mobile device. Besides, it will enhance the performance as it is capable of accessing real-time information, as mentioned above.
To conclude, mobile edge computing is an essential component for the 5G network. If 5G relies only on a centralized cloud solution, then network performance may not meet the goal.
Apart from that, mobile edge computing is not a consumer technology that needs to be purchased. Instead, it is a network technology and depends on virtualization and base station. So, in the 5G implementation, vendors can expect seamless performance. Overall, mobile edge computing will transform the base stations into intelligent hubs with the implementation of 5G!
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