Edge Computing and Edge Intelligence

Abstract

For any advanced communication technologies to be commercially viable, it is a prerogative for the electromagnetic spectrum to act as a catalyst. For technological breakthroughs and fulfilling the demands of better utilization of such natural resources, novel communication schemes are proposed predominantly based on full-duplex (FD) and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) technologies. Secrecy outage probability (SOP), throughput, data rate, and secrecy capacity are a few metrics that define an efficient sixth-generation (6G) wireless network. By integrating communication and information technologies, multi-access edge computing (MEC) intrinsically amalgamates the computing and caching capabilities in the users' immediate proximity, reducing the transmission delay and improving the resource utilization at the edge. As a further benefit, the emergence of MEC alleviates both the potential data transmission congestion of the transport network (TN) as well as the data processing burden imposed on the core network (CN). Multi-access edge computing (MEC) is envisaged to be one technology capable of meeting the challenging requirements of 6G, as a benefit of providing computing and caching capabilities near the users. In addition, the conventional radio access network (RAN) needs restructuring to provide the necessary intelligence in all areas to meet the required network flexibility, full coverage, and massive access. In this respect, this chapter focuses on intelligent massive RAN architecture and key technologies fulfilling the requirements, in addition to open access MEC schemes to enhance reconfiguration of the disaggregated MEC functions and resources into customized edge instances. © 2024 selection and editorial matter, Dr. Abraham George and G. Ramana Murthy; individual chapters, the contributors.