Analyzing MEC architectural implications for LTE/LTE-A

LTE requirements are continuously pointing towards lower-latency services, while 3G and 4G networks are suffering from a mobile data surge. Pushing network services to the edge has the potential to improve user latency and experience, as well as to offload Internet traffic. Network functions can be dynamically reassigned between edge and core nodes, offering flexibility and scalability as required. LTE could benefit considerably from such Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) principles, but a detailed MEC architecture

is not currently in place. The goal of this research report is to analyze the impact of MEC on the current LTE/LTE-A systems, considering use-cases of interest, identified by

ETSI. To this end, a modular MEC architecture is proposed, identifying the

required network interfaces, application development services, and application

programming interface.