373
A Comprehensive Guide to 5G Security, First Edition. Edited by Madhusanka Liyanage, Ijaz Ahmad,
Ahmed Bux Abro, Andrei Gurtov, and Mika Ylianttila.
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2018 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
16
Cloud and MEC Security
Jude Okwuibe, Madhusanka Liyanage, Ijaz Ahmad, and Mika Ylianttila
Centre for Wireless Communications, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
16.1 Introduction
The extreme capacity and performance demands of 5G networks will necessitate major
changes in the way we produce and utilize digital services. 5G will usher in a massive
array of new devices, services and use cases driven by technology developments and
socio‐economic transformations into the mobile network arena. Records will be set on
every metric; ubiquitous ultra‐broadband, virtual zero latency and gigabit experience
will be the key defining features of the 5G networks. Certain key technologies and
methods become pertinent towards the evolution to 5G; among these are Cloud
Computing and Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC).
The relevance of cloud computing to mobile network has been on upward spiral
over the last decade. Cloud computing provides on‐demand computing resources
and services on a scalable platform to both large and small organizations. At present, popular social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Netflix are
basically running on clouds. Besides, users are increasingly accustomed to carrying
multiple mobile devices to meet their different lifestyle and work demands. This
buttresses the need for cloud services in two ways; first, to ensure that user data is
synchronized on all devices and second, to enable low storage devices to perform
storage intensive operations leveraging on the cloud for virtual storage. This not
only reduces cost of devices, but also extends battery life and improves overall user
experience.
Another initiative for advancing the efficiency and dynamism in mobile networks
is MEC. MEC is one of the most recent approaches towards the extension of cloud
computing capabilities to the edge of the network. The main idea of the MEC initiative
is bringing the clouds closer to the edge of the network as well as to the users.
A Comprehensive Guide to 5G Security, First Edition. Edited by Madhusanka Liyanage, Ijaz Ahmad,
Ahmed Bux Abro, Andrei Gurtov, and Mika Ylianttila.
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2018 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
16
Cloud and MEC Security
Jude Okwuibe, Madhusanka Liyanage, Ijaz Ahmad, and Mika Ylianttila
Centre for Wireless Communications, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
16.1 Introduction
The extreme capacity and performance demands of 5G networks will necessitate major
changes in the way we produce and utilize digital services. 5G will usher in a massive
array of new devices, services and use cases driven by technology developments and
socio‐economic transformations into the mobile network arena. Records will be set on
every metric; ubiquitous ultra‐broadband, virtual zero latency and gigabit experience
will be the key defining features of the 5G networks. Certain key technologies and
methods become pertinent towards the evolution to 5G; among these are Cloud
Computing and Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC).
The relevance of cloud computing to mobile network has been on upward spiral
over the last decade. Cloud computing provides on‐demand computing resources
and services on a scalable platform to both large and small organizations. At present, popular social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Netflix are
basically running on clouds. Besides, users are increasingly accustomed to carrying
multiple mobile devices to meet their different lifestyle and work demands. This
buttresses the need for cloud services in two ways; first, to ensure that user data is
synchronized on all devices and second, to enable low storage devices to perform
storage intensive operations leveraging on the cloud for virtual storage. This not
only reduces cost of devices, but also extends battery life and improves overall user
experience.
Another initiative for advancing the efficiency and dynamism in mobile networks
is MEC. MEC is one of the most recent approaches towards the extension of cloud
computing capabilities to the edge of the network. The main idea of the MEC initiative
is bringing the clouds closer to the edge of the network as well as to the users.