Integrated Networking, Caching, and Computing for Future Wireless Networks

最近信息和通信技术(ICT)的进步推动了包括网络、缓存和计算在内的各个领域的大量创新，所有这些都对下一代无线网络的发展产生了深远的影响。在网络领域，软件定义网络(SDN)和网络功能虚拟化(NFV)引起了学术界和工业界的极大兴趣。网内缓存是另一种很有前途的技术，可以有效地减少访问延迟、流量负载和网络成本。此外，计算领域的最新进展(例如云/雾/边缘计算)也将对未来的无线网络产生重大影响。特别是，移动边缘计算被提出将计算资源部署在更靠近移动设备的地方，这可以有效地提高需要资源密集型计算和低延迟的应用的性能。虽然已经在未来无线网络的组网、缓存和计算方面做了一些工作，但这三项重要的使能技术传统上是在现有工作中单独研究的。然而，网络、缓存和计算的集成框架有可能显著提高应用程序的端到端性能。在广泛部署联网、高速缓存和计算的综合框架成为现实之前，仍有几个重大的研究挑战需要解决。这项研究的短期目标是通过促进网络体系结构和协议、虚拟资源管理和协调以及跨层设计的发展来应对这些挑战，这些设计将使未来无线网络的集成网络、缓存和计算更加高效和有效，从而使它们的广泛部署切实可行并具有商业可行性。这项研究的长期目标是在下一代及以后为无线网络技术的进步做出贡献。拟议研究产生的颠覆性技术有可能对新兴技术标准的演变产生重大影响，或导致无线网络新技术标准的发展。拟议的研究结果还为加拿大工业提供了潜在的商业和技术转让。科学方法将以完善的研究原则为基础，包括全面的文献调查和分析建模，并结合广泛的数值分析和计算机模拟。这项研究将培养一批高素质的研究生和本科生人才，以满足加拿大信息和通信技术行业日益增长的需求。

Recent advances in information and communications technology (ICT) have fueled a plethora of innovations in various areas, including networking, caching, and computing, all of which have profound impacts on the development of future generation wireless networks. In the area of networking, software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) have attracted tremendous interests in both academia and industry. In-network caching is another promising technology that can efficiently reduce access delays, traffic loads, and network costs. Moreover, recent advances in computing (e.g., cloud/fog/edge computing) will also have significant impacts on future wireless networks. Particularly, mobile edge computing has been proposed to deploy computing resources closer to mobile devices, which can efficiently improve the performance for applications requiring resource-intensive computations and low latency. While some work have been done on networking, caching and computing for future wireless networks, these three important enabling technologies have traditionally been studied separately in the existing works. However, an integrated framework for networking, caching and computing has the potential to significantly improve the end-to-end performance of applications. Several significant research challenges remain to be addressed before the widespread deployment of an integrated framework for networking, caching and computing to become practical. The short term objective of this research is to address these challenges by contributing to the development of network architectures and protocols, virtual resources management and orchestrations, and cross-layer designs that will make integrated networking, caching and computing for future wireless networks more efficient and effective; and thereby make their widespread deployment practical and commercially viable. The long term objective of this research is to contribute to the advancement of wireless networks technologies through the next generation and beyond. The disruptive technologies resulting from the proposed research have the potential of making significant impacts on the evolution of emerging technical standards or leading to the development of new technical standards of wireless networks. The outcome of the proposed research also provides potential commercial and technology transfer to the Canadian industry. The scientific approach will be based on sound research principles involving comprehensive literature survey and analytical modeling combined with extensive numerical analysis and computer simulations. This research will prepare a number of highly qualified personnel at the postgraduate and undergraduate level to serve the growing needs of the information and communications technologies industry in Canada.