This paper analyzes current standardization situation of 5G and the role network softwarization plays in order to address the challenges the new generation of mobile networks must face. This paper surveys recent documentation from the main stakeholders to pick out the use cases, scenarios and emerging vertical sectors that will be enabled by 5G technologies, and to identify future high-level service requirements. Driven by those service requirements 5G systems will support diverse radio access technology scenarios, meet end-to-end user experienced requirements and provide capability of flexible network deployment and efficient operations. Then, based on the identified requirements, the paper overviews the main 5G technology trends and design principles to address them. In particular, the paper emphasizes the role played by three main technologies, namely SDN, NFV and MEC, and analyzes the main open issues of these technologies in relation to 5G.

We propose the TelcoFog architecture as a novel, secure, highly distributed and ultradense fog computing infrastructure, which can be allocated at the extreme edge of a wired/wireless network for a Telecom Operator to provide multiple unified, cost-effective and new 5G services, such as Network Function Virtualization (NFV), Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), and services for third parties (e.g., smart cities, vertical industries or Internet of Things (IoT)).The distributed and programmable fog technologies that are proposed in TelcoFog are expected to strengthen the position of the Mobile Network and cloud markets. TelcoFog, by design, is capable of integrating an ecosystem for network operators willing to provide NFV, MEC and IoT services. TelcoFog key benefits are the dynamic deployment of new distributed low-latency services.The novel TelcoFog architecture consists of three main building blocks: a) a scalable TelcoFog node, that is seamlessly integrated in the Telecom infrastructure; b) a TelcoFog controller, focused on service assurance and based on service data modeling using YANG, that is integrated in the management and orchestration architecture of the Telecom operator; and c) TelcoFog services, which are able to run on top of the TelcoFog and Telecom infrastructure. The TelcoFog architecture is validated through a Proof of Concept for IoT services.

5G envisages a “hyperconnected society” where trillions of diverse entities could communicate with each other anywhere and at any time, some of which will demand extremely challenging performance requirements such as submillisecond low latency. Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) concept where application computing resources are deployed at the edge of the mobile network in proximity of an end user is a promising solution to improve quality of online experience. To make MEC more flexible and cost-effective Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) and Software-Defined Networking (SDN) technologies are widely adopted. It leads to significant CAPEX and OPEX reduction with the help of a joint radio-cloud management and orchestration logic. In this paper we discuss and develop a reference architecture for the orchestration and management of the MEC ecosystem. Along with the lifecycle management flows of MEC services, indicating the interactions among the functional modules inside the Orchestrator and with external elements, QoS management with a focus on the channel state information technique is presented.

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