ZTE Communications ›› 2017, Vol. 15 ›› Issue (2): 19-25.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1673-5188.2017.02.003

• Special Topic • Previous Articles     Next Articles

An MEC and NFV Integrated Network Architecture

LI Bing, ZHANG Yunyong, XU Lei   

  1. China Unicom Research Institute, Beijing 100032, China
  • Received:2017-01-24 Online:2017-04-25 Published:2019-12-24
  • About author:LI Bing (lib78@chinaunicom.cn) received her Ph.D. from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. She is now an engineer at the China Unicom Research Institute with specialist research in cloud computing, container, the future network and computer system structure. She received the Outstanding Student Award from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.|ZHANG Yunyong (zhangyy@chinaunicom.cn) graduated from the postdoctoral program of University of Electronic Science and Technology, China. He is the head of the China Unicom Research Institute and the director of the Technical Committee of the Institute. His research interests include next-generation open networks, fixed mobile convergence core network, mobile Internet and services, and public computing. He won the MIIT Excellent ITU Contribution Award twice, Outstanding Individual Award twice, one international award, and 15 provincial and ministerial awards.|XU Lei (xulei56@chinaunicom.cn) received his Ph.D. from Beijing Institute of Technology, China. He is now a senior engineer and the cloud management research group leader with the China Unicom Research Institute. His research interests include cloud computing, SDN/NFV, and the future network. He won the Top-Notch Talent Award from the China Unicom Research Institute.

Abstract:

The demand for 5G services and applications is driving the change of network architecture. The mobile edge computing (MEC) technology combines the mobile network technology with cloud computing and virtualization, and is one of the key technologies for 5G networks. Compared to network function virtualization (NFV), another critical enabler of 5G networks, MEC reduces latency and enhances the offered capacity. In this paper, we discuss the combination of the two technologies and propose a new architecture. Moreover, we list the application scenarios using the proposed architecture.

Key words: MEC, 5G, NFV, cloud computing, network architecture evolution