Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) and Information Centric Networking (ICN) for 5G

5G Americas published an interesting white paper titled “Understanding Information Centric Networking and Mobile Edge Computing” [5G Americas], which discusses how Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) and Information-Centric Networking (ICN) could support the diversity of use cases for 5G ranging from IoT to high-definition video.

ICN evolves the Internet infrastructure by moving from the current host-centric paradigm to a network architecture in which the focus is on named information [WP].

MEC brings application developers and content providers cloud computing capabilities and an IT service environment at the edge of the mobile network [ETSI].

According to the 5G Americas white paper, a 5G network may use ICN for content distribution, transparent mobility among multiple access technologies, and leverage ICN’s ability to retransmit lost packets over an unreliable radio link. An end-to-end ICN framework could be implemented as an overlay on existing IP networks (ICN over IP). ICN could also be deployed within a 5G network slice where separate ICN frames would receive special treatment compared to IP packets.

MEC could be employed to reduce latency for AR and VR applications, or to perform distributed data reduction and security functions for an IoT network. The complete set of example use cases that the white paper lists include IoT, video distribution/content cache, generic compute resources (using a MEC server placed at the access network), edge analytics, cell-level performance optimization, and latency-sensitive applications.

There are also synergies that can be exploited when MEC and ICN are deployed cooperatively.

[5G Americas] Understanding Information Centric Networking and Mobile Edge Computing, http://www.5gamericas.org/files/3414/8173/2353/Understanding_Information_Centric_Networking_and_Mobile_Edge_Computing.pdf

[ETSI] Mobile Edge Computing, http://www.etsi.org/technologies-clusters/technologies/mobile-edge-computing

[WP] Information-centric networking, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information-centric_networking