Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan.
Rakuten Mobile, Inc., Tokyo 151-0051, Japan.
Sensors (Basel). 2022 Jul 8;22(14):5145. doi: 10.3390/s22145145.
The emergence of 5G-IoT opens up unprecedented connectivity possibilities for new service use cases and players. Multi-access edge computing (MEC) is a crucial technology and enabler for Beyond 5G, supporting next-generation communications with service guarantees (e.g., ultra-low latency, high security) from an end-to-end (E2E) perspective. On the other hand, one notable advance is the platform that supports virtualization from RAN to applications. Deploying Radio Access Networks (RAN) and MEC, including third-party applications on virtualization platforms, and renting other equipment from legacy telecom operators will make it easier for new telecom operators, called Private/Local Telecom Operators, to join the ecosystem. Our preliminary studies have discussed the ecosystem for private and local telecom operators regarding business potential and revenue and provided numerical results. What remains is how Private/Local Telecom Operators can manage and deploy their MEC applications. In this paper, we designed the architecture for fully virtualized MEC 5G cellular networks with local use cases (e.g., stadiums, campuses). We propose an MEC/Cloud Orchestrator implementation for intelligent deployment selection. In addition, we provide implementation schemes in several cases held by either existing cloud owners or private and local operators. In order to verify the proposal's feasibility, we designed the system level in E2E and constructed a Beyond 5G testbed at the Ōokayama Campus of the Tokyo Institute of Technology. Through proof-of-concept in the outdoor field, the proposed system's feasibility is verified by E2E performance evaluation. The verification results prove that the proposed approach can reduce latency and provide a more stable throughput than conventional cloud services.
5G-IoT 的出现为新的服务用例和参与者开辟了前所未有的连接可能性。多接入边缘计算（MEC）是 Beyond 5G 的关键技术和推动者，从端到端（E2E）的角度支持具有服务保证（例如超低延迟、高安全性）的下一代通信。另一方面，一个显著的进步是支持从 RAN 到应用程序的虚拟化的平台。在虚拟化平台上部署无线电接入网络（RAN）和 MEC，包括第三方应用程序，并从传统电信运营商租用其他设备，这将使新的电信运营商（称为私人/本地电信运营商）更容易加入生态系统。我们的初步研究讨论了关于商业潜力和收入的私人和本地电信运营商的生态系统，并提供了数值结果。剩下的是私人/本地电信运营商如何管理和部署他们的 MEC 应用程序。在本文中，我们设计了具有本地用例（例如体育场、校园）的全虚拟化 MEC 5G 蜂窝网络的架构。我们提出了一种用于智能部署选择的 MEC/Cloud Orchestrator 实现。此外，我们还提供了现有云所有者或私人和本地运营商持有的几种情况下的实施方案。为了验证该提案的可行性，我们在 E2E 中设计了系统级，并在东京技术学院大冈山校区构建了一个 Beyond 5G 测试平台。通过在户外现场进行概念验证，通过端到端性能评估验证了所提出系统的可行性。验证结果证明，与传统的云服务相比，所提出的方法可以降低延迟并提供更稳定的吞吐量。
