A New Approach to 5G and MEC Integration

This paper presents a concept of integration of MEC into the 5G network slicing architecture. Three variants of the architecture have been proposed, which incorporate: individual MEP/MEPM for each slice, shared ones for multiple network slices and Distributed Autonomous Slice Management and Orchestration (DASMO) approach. Each variant is focused on efficient integration of 5G Core and MEC solutions and utilizing additional functionalities of both components, including MEC APIs and 5G Control Plane exposure capabilities. Finally, main issues of 5G-MEC implementation have been discussed, which include the aspects of MEC service APIs, MEC Apps mobility in demanding use cases, challenges of service continuity in roaming scenarios as well as the role and availability of 5G enablers.