Multi-tier multi-access edge computing: The role for the fourth industrial revolution

The fifth-generation (5G) mobile systems are considered as a promising infrastructure to provide connectivity for massive Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices leading to the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0), i.e., smart manufacturing. The smart manufacturing is characterized by capabilities of digitization, smartization, and connectivity for manufacturing operations and machinery where a huge amount of data has to be processed within ultralow latency. Since the machinery is limited in computing performance, the data generated by the machinery should to be offloaded to the network for process and storage. In this circumstance, the multi-tier multi-access edge computing (mMEC), one of the most important 5G technologies, demonstrate its advantages for data handling within the aforementioned smart-manufacturing requirements. In this paper, we present the mMEC architecture and investigate its role in the Industry 4.0. Moreover, the challenges of utilizing the mMEC in the smart factory are discussed in order to identify future research trends.