5G Edge Computing with MEC and RAN Slicing for Ultra‐Low Latency IoT Applications

Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC), which is implemented in 5G Radio Access Networks (RAN), is a radical extension of distributed computing infrastructure that allows the offloading of computation to edge servers that are proximate to the network. This chapter examines a new way forward in the use of MEC and RAN slicing technology to realize ultra-low latency processing to support Internet of Things (IoT) applications requiring response times of less than 10 milliseconds. The scale of the IoT devices that grow exponentially combined with the development of latency-sensitive applications in the automotive, industrial and real-time control enterprises has unveiled intrinsic shortcomings of conventional cloud computing structure. RAN slicing facilitates the dynamic assignment of radio resources to heterogenically needs-based services, separating latency-sensitive services and throughput-focused services and eliminating cross-slice performance interaction.