ECI 2016 - Track on Emerging Computing Infrastructures

The evolving 5G systems introduce tight requirements for service quality, scalability and reliability. Such requirements significantly influence the mobile network design pushing the barrier towards network decentralization, higher radio access densification and network agnostic access. A key enabler to support this evolving 5G network design is the introduction of edge-cloud platforms or cloudlets, which can bring applications, e.g. content, as well as application services, such as computer processing, performance feedback, etc., and virtual network functions closer to the user. Besides the performance enhancements, edge-cloud platforms or cloudlets can also provide open access for Over-The-Top providers and vertical market players supporting multi-tenancy. The technical and business potential of edge-cloud and cloudlets has attracted the industry interest, introducing various standardization efforts across different bodies including ETSI Mobile Edge Computing, Small Cell Forum, IETF Distributed Mobility Management and the Broadband Forum. The objective of this track is to bring together the state-of-the-art research and standardization that address challenges related to edge-cloud or cloudlets in the mobile network design evolution towards 5G. Topics of interest include but not limited to:
Application QoS/QoE enhancements and location services
Network function decentralization and application optimization
Decentralized mobility management and service continuity
Mobility management across edge-cloud platforms
Evolving traffic offloading services in edge-computing platforms
Flexible Cloud-RAN design and management
Orchestrating C-RAN and application services across edge-cloud platforms
Joint optimization of applications, services and network functions
Supporting multi-tenancy in open edge-cloud platforms
Mobile ? Fixed covered control plane and network agnostic access
Enterprise/business and home gateway virtualization
Hybrid Access architecture and solutions