A Win-Win Mode: The Complementary and Coexistence of 5G Networks and Edge Computing

The emerging Internet of Things (IoT) services put forward higher demands on the bandwidth and latency performance of the traditional cloud computing. Cloud-edge collaboration and 5G cloud are two effective schemes to solve this problem. Adopting only one scheme may lead to the insufficiency of the performance in strict scenarios. So, the integration deployment of 5G networks and edge computing is significant. This article aims to provide a comprehensive survey on the complementarity and coexistence of 5G networks and edge computing. It reviews the evolving bonds of mobile communication technologies and edge computing and summarizes five scenarios where both 5G and edge computing can be applied. Based on the analysis of the key technologies and the tech-connections of 5G and edge computing, a win-win mode of them complementing each other is proposed. Finally, the potential challenges of the new mode, including security risks, heterogeneity issues, transition stage, and service orchestration, are summarized. This survey can provide rational assistance for researchers and developers focusing on the integration deployment of 5G networks and edge computing.