Fast Transport for Edge Computing in 5G Networks

We consider TCP performance for cloud services in 5G cellular networks and show that edge clouds offer the highest throughput, but that further improvements still are possible. To this end we devise a concept where edge clouds connected directly to the radio access network can increase their transmission rates by relying on the built in re-transmissions (through quality of service features) and on the built in user fairness (through per-user buffers and scheduler policies). We use numerical examples from measurements in real networks to demonstrate that the concept is efficient and significantly improves the effective throughput beyond what placement alone can do, and we also outline possible further improvements.