Challenges on wireless heterogeneous networks for mobile cloud computing

Mobile cloud computing (MCC) is an appealing paradigm enabling users to enjoy the vast computation power and abundant network services ubiquitously with the support of remote cloud. However, the wireless networks and mobile devices have to face many challenges due to the limited radio resources, battery power and communications capabilities, which may significantly impede the improvement of service qualities. Heterogeneous Network (HetNet), which has multiple types of low power radio access nodes in addition to the traditional macrocell nodes in a wireless network, is widely accepted as a promising way to satisfy the unrelenting traffic demand. In this article, we first introduce the framework of HetNet for MCC, identifying the main functional blocks. Then, the current state of the art techniques for each functional block are briefly surveyed, and the challenges for supporting MCC applications in HetNet under our proposed framework are discussed. We also envision the future for MCC in HetNet before drawing the conclusion.