One of the fascinating aspects of modern communications is how it is interwoven into every new advance in technology. In fact, it is difficult to find a new technology, renewable power generation, unmanned aerial vehicles, etc., that does not feature wireless communications in some form. The Internet of Things would not be possible without mobile networks. This is driving an explosion of interest in the edge of the network. What used to be regarded as “the last mile” and merely an obstacle to be overcome before the resources of the central core could be made available to the users and consumers at the edges, is now starting to play a much more prominent role in those same services. An interesting evolution in the network is the confluence of complex algorithms with the evolving dynamic nature of mobile communications. When computational resources were centralized, it was only necessary to determine how best to channel these resources to their users, a comparatively simple problem. Further, when the bulk of the network was static, the routing problem was comparatively constrained. While not by any means simple, as long as the networks and computational resources were relatively static, the algorithms were also fairly straightforward. However, over the past few years the computational and communications horsepower in the edge devices is becoming significant. It is now possible for edge devices to minimize their communication bandwidth utilization by taking on more of the computational load; further, they can reduce the communication load on the core by intercommunicating among themselves. However, this clearly leads to far more complex routing, control, and computational algorithms required to keep the whole ensemble running while everything is changing under them. A fertile field for research! We are therefore pleased to bring you four papers in this issue that cover different but related aspects of this trend.

中文翻译：

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移动通信和网络


现代通信的一个令人着迷的方面是它如何与每一项新的技术进步交织在一起。事实上，很难找到一种新技术，如可再生能源发电、无人机等，不具有某种形式的无线通信功能。如果没有移动网络，物联网就不可能实现。这推动了人们对网络边缘的兴趣激增。过去被视为“最后一英里”，仅仅是将中央核心的资源提供给边缘用户和消费者之前需要克服的障碍，现在开始在这些领域发挥更加突出的作用。相同的服务。网络中一个有趣的演变是复杂算法与移动通信不断发展的动态特性的融合。当计算资源集中时，只需确定如何最好地将这些资源引导给用户，这是一个相对简单的问题。此外，当网络的大部分是静态的时，路由问题相对受到限制。虽然绝不简单，但只要网络和计算资源相对静态，算法也相当简单。然而，在过去几年中，边缘设备的计算和通信能力变得越来越重要。现在，边缘设备可以通过承担更多的计算负载来最小化其通信带宽利用率；此外，它们还可以通过相互通信来减少核心上的通信负载。然而，这显然会导致路由、控制和计算算法变得更加复杂，以保持整个整体的运行，同时一切都在发生变化。 研究的沃土！因此，我们很高兴在本期为您带来四篇论文，涵盖了这一趋势的不同但相关的方面。