Ultra-low end-to-end latency is one of the most important requirements in 5G networks and beyond to support latency-critical applications. Cloud-RAN and MEC are considered as the key driving technology that can help reduce end-to-end latency. However, the use of MEC nodes poses radical changes to the access network architecture. As it brings the processing and the networking services closer to the edge, it often requires network functions (for example, the CU/DU stack and the application processing) to be distributed across different MEC sites. Therefore, a novel transport mechanism is needed to efficiently coordinate and connect network functions across MEC nodes. In order to address this challenge, we propose a novel two-tier virtualized PON transport method with schedulers coordination over a virtualised and sliced MESH-PON architecture. While a MESH-PON architecture enables direct communication between MEC nodes that are hosting CU/DU and/or the application processing, our method provides a two tier virtualised PON transport scheme with coordinated schedulers. This approach greatly reduces latency incurred in transporting signals across the different PON tiers, while maintaining the flexibility of the multi-tier methods. We show that our proposed scheme can achieve end-to-end application-level latency below 1ms or 2ms, depending on the network configurations.
翻译:超低端到端悬浮是5G网络内外支持延迟关键应用的最重要要求之一。 Cloud-RAN 和 MEC 被认为是有助于减少端到端悬浮的关键驱动技术。 但是,使用MEC 节点对接入网络结构带来了巨大的变化。当它使处理和网络服务更接近边缘时,它往往要求网络功能(例如CU/DU堆和应用程序处理)分布在不同MEC 站点之间。因此,需要一个新的运输机制来有效地协调和连接MEC 节点的网络功能。为了应对这一挑战,我们提议一种新型的双级虚拟PON 运输方法,在虚拟化和切片的MESH-PON 结构上与调度员协调。MESH-PON 结构可以使主办C/DU和(或)应用程序处理的MEC 节点能够直接沟通,但我们的方法提供了两级虚拟PON 运输计划,有协调的调度员。为了应对这一挑战,我们提出了一种新型的双级虚拟 PON 运输方式,在将信号传送到不同的PON 级配置系统上可以显示我们多级配置系统。</s>