IEEE Access Special Section Editorial: Fog Radio Access Networks (F-RANS) for 5G: Recent Advances and Future Trends

To satisfy the explosively increasing demands for high-speed data applications and massive access requirements of various Internet-of-thing (IoT) devices, a whole package of performance requirements has been proposed for the fifth-generation (5G) mobile communication system. Motivated by the necessity of network architecture enhancement, a paradigm of fog radio access networks (F-RANs) has emerged as a promising evolution path for 5G network architecture. In F-RANs, a fog-computing layer is formed at the edge of networks, and parts of service requirements can be responded to locally without interacting with the cloud computing center via the fronthaul links. Therefore, by taking full advantage of distributed caching and centralized processing, F-RANs provide great flexibility to satisfy quality-of-service (QoS) requirements of various 5G scenarios. F-RAN has become a research hotspot and draws a lot of attention from both academia and industry. As it integrates with artificial intelligence and other new emerging technologies, 5G is facing new challenges, and the study of F-RANs is entering a new era as well.