Mobile-edge computing vs. centralized cloud computing in fiber-wireless access networks

The advent of Internet of Things and 5G applications renders the need for integration of both centralized cloud computing and emerging mobile-edge computing (MEC) with existing network infrastructures to enhance storage, processing, and caching capabilities in not only centralized but also distributed fashions for supporting both delay-tolerant and mission-critical applications. This paper investigates performance gains of centralized cloud and MEC enabled integrated fiber-wireless (FiWi) access networks. A novel resource management scheme incorporating both centralized cloud and MEC offloading activities into the underlying FiWi dynamic bandwidth allocation process is proposed. An analytical framework is developed to model packet delay, response time efficiency, and gain-offload overhead ratio for both cloud and conventional broadband access traffic. The obtained results demonstrate the feasibility of implementing conventional cloud and MEC in FiWi access networks, while not affecting network performance of broadband access traffic.