'Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)'
Doi
Abstract
5G systems are envisioned to support numerous delay-sensitive applications such as the tactile
Internet, mobile gaming, and augmented reality. Such applications impose new demands on service providers
in terms of the quality of service (QoS) provided to the end-users. Achieving these demands in mobile
5G-enabled networks represent a technical and administrative challenge. One of the solutions proposed is
to provide cloud computing capabilities at the edge of the network. In such vision, services are cloudified
and encapsulated within the virtual machines or containers placed in cloud hosts at the network access layer.
To enable ultrashort processing times and immediate service response, fast instantiation, and migration of
service instances between edge nodes are mandatory to cope with the consequences of user’s mobility.
This paper surveys the techniques proposed for service migration at the edge of the network. We focus
on QoS-aware service instantiation and migration approaches, comparing the mechanisms followed and
emphasizing their advantages and disadvantages. Then, we highlight the open research challenges still left
unhandled.publishe