A Survey of Multi-Access Edge Computing in 5G and Beyond: Fundamentals, Technology Integration, and State-of-the-Art
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Driven by the emergence of new compute-intensive applications and the vision of IoT, the 5G network will face an unprecedented increase in traffic volume and computation demands. However, end users mostly have limited storage capacities and finite processing capabilities, thus how to run compute-intensive applications on resource-constrained users has become a natural concern. Mobile edge computing (MEC) can optimize mobile resources by hosting compute-intensive applications, process large data before sending to the cloud, provide the cloud-computing capabilities within the radio access network in close proximity to mobile users, and offer context-aware services. Hence, MEC enables a wide variety of applications, where the real-time response is strictly required, e.g., driverless vehicles, augmented reality, and immerse media. 5G is broadly characterized by three service types: extremely high data rate, massive connectivity, and low latency and ultra-high reliability. Indeed, the paradigm shift from 4G to 5G could become a reality with the advent of new technologies. The successful realization of MEC in 5G is still in its infancy and demands for constant efforts from both academic and industry communities. In this survey, we first provide a holistic overview of MEC, and potential use cases and applications. The main part of this paper surveys up-to-date researches on the integration of MEC with 5G and beyond technologies including non-orthogonal multiple access, wireless power transfer and energy harvesting, unmanned aerial vehicle, IoT, network densification, and machine learning. Moreover, we summarize the existing literature that integrates MEC with other 5G technologies and that focus on developing testbeds and experimental evaluations. We further summarize lessons learned from state-of-the-art researches as well as discuss challenges and potential future directions for MEC research.
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