Challenges in Caching Strategies for Mobile Edge Computing

With the advent of smart devices and new applications, wireless network traffic is experiencing exponential growth and, as a result, applications take more time to respond due to higher latencies. The Quality of Experience (QoE) for the end-users is, therefore, affected. To alleviate this problem, new ideas that carry network contents to the edge of the network are required. For this purpose, mobile edge computing and caching was introduced. However, the decentralized design of edge nodes, their small coverage, limited computing, and storage capacity pose challenges to the advancement of mobile edge caching. The purpose of this study is to explore the significance of recent advances in Mobile Edge Computing with focus on data caching techniques. We emphasize on the caching techniques of edge computing, the different advantages that it provides and also some of the challenges that come along with it. Some best practices that already exist have been considered to address the challenges of caching in 5G networks. One of the proposed frameworks in the literature consists of using an edge node to authenticate users while predicting and updating their content demands in real time. Based on the predictions, the users' average latency can be reduced by determining the optimal content that is to be stored through the use of advanced optimization techniques.