Radio network-aware edge caching for video delivery in MEC-enabled cellular networks

Abstract

With the rapid development of Mobile Internet, online Video-on-Demand (VoD) services, primarily 4K video, grow tremendously with the key performance indicators of lower latency, higher bandwidth, and higher bitrate. However, due to the long-distance between the user equipment (UE) and Internet Service Provider, Quality-of-Service (QoS) in terms of low playback delay and high transmission rate cannot be guaranteed. Therefore, Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), at the edge of the cellular network, is highly recommended with the benefits of lower uncertainty and end-to-end latency. The UE can enjoy better customized services with more appropriate bitrates as a result. In this paper, we propose a practical framework of MEC-enabled cellular network with radio network-aware edge cache and a radio network-aware cache updating algorithm. The framework uses Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) and Radio Network Information Service (RNIS) is leveraged to accelerate multi-media services. Under this framework, RNIS collects information and delivers it to the MEC server based on the context. A testbed based on a real 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) Base Station is developed carrying out experiments under this framework. Compared to traditional networks, the result shows that our approach maintains a smooth high quality of experience (QoE).