TelcoFog: A unified flexible fog and cloud computing architecture for 5G networks

Telecom operators require cloud computing and storage infrastructures, integrated with their heterogeneous access and transport networks, in order to provide software defined networking (SDN), network functions virtualization (NFV), mobile edge computing (MEC), and cloud radio access network (C-RAN) for future 5G services. Virtualized functions (e.g., mobile Evolved Packet Core — EPC, firewall, local cache, video analytics, video storage, central cache, virtual base station, virtualized BBU-BBU hosteling) are typically deployed in specialized and dedicated hardware. To that end, telecom operators need to dynamically allocate computing and storage resources to flexibly deploy virtualized functions in cloud infrastructures where needed. Notwithstanding, deploying a private cloud infrastructure integrated with the telecom network presents a differential set of challenges due to the industry's inherent requirements for high availability (5-nines), ultralow latency, and complex networking (Ethernet, optical, wireless, etc.).Peer Reviewe