Towards the Seamless Integration of OTT CDN and Mobile Edge Computing System

Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) is an emerging technology recognized as a key enabler for 5G networks as well as being compatible with 4G networks. One of the key uses addressed by MEC is to improve the quality of experience (QoE) of the Over the Top (OTT) services with the content delivery network (CDN). Although there have been the approaches supporting the CDN based on the architecture specified by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) MEC Industry Specification Group (ISG), they cannot be readily applied to the OTT services that are delivered in the CDN self-built by the OTT players. We identify the gaps between the requirements from the OTT players and the capabilities of existing approaches. The solution enabling the operation of OTT's native CDN in the ETSI MEC architecture is thereby proposed. It is verified in the realistic environment with the 4G network built by China Unicom (CUC) and the video streaming service operated by Tencent. The field trial discloses that our solution outperforms Tencent's traditional CDN by 37% in downloading throughput and 52% in round-trip time (RTT).