Mobile Edge Computing: Opportunities, solutions, and challenges

The emergence of several new computing applications, such as virtual reality and smart environments, has become possible due to availability of large pool of cloud resources and services. However, the delay sensitive applications pose strict delay requirements that transforms euphoria into a problem. The cloud computing paradigm is unable to meet the requirements of low latency, location awareness, and mobility support. In this context, Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) was introduced to bring the cloud services and resources closer to the user proximity by leveraging the available resources in the edge networks. In this paper, we present the definitions of the MEC given by researchers. Further, motivation of the MEC is highlighted by discussing various applications. We also discuss the opportunities brought by the MEC and some of the important research challenges are highlighted in MEC environment. A brief overview of accepted papers in our Special Issue on MEC is presented. Finally we conclude this paper by highlighting the key points and summarizing the paper. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.