While video-on-demand still takes up the lion's share of Internet traffic, we are witnessing a significant increase in the adoption of mobile applications defined by tight bit rate and latency requirements (e.g., augmented/virtual reality). Supporting such applications over a mobile network is very challenging due to the unsteady nature of the network and the long distance between the users and the application back-end, which usually sits in the cloud. To address these and other challenges, like security, reliability, and scalability, a new paradigm termed multi-access edge computing (MEC) has emerged. MEC places computational resources closer to the end users, thus reducing the overall end-to-end latency and the utilization of the network backhaul. However, to adapt to the volatile nature of a mobile network, MEC applications need real-time information about the status of the radio channel. The ETSI-defined radio network information service (RNIS) is in charge of providing MEC applications with up-to-date information about the radio network. In this article, we first discuss three use cases that can benefit from the RNIS (collision avoidance, media streaming, and Industrial Internet of Things). Then we analyze the requirements and challenges underpinning the design of a scalable RNIS platform, and report on a prototype implementation and its evaluation. Finally, we provide a roadmap of future research challenges.

中文翻译：

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ONIX：开放无线电网络信息交换


虽然视频点播仍然占据互联网流量的最大份额，但我们目睹了由严格的比特率和延迟要求（例如增强/虚拟现实）定义的移动应用程序的采用显着增加。由于网络的不稳定性质以及用户与应用程序后端（通常位于云端）之间的距离很远，通过移动网络支持此类应用程序非常具有挑战性。为了解决这些以及其他挑战，例如安全性、可靠性和可扩展性，出现了一种称为多访问边缘计算（MEC）的新范例。 MEC 将计算资源放置在更靠近最终用户的位置，从而减少整体端到端延迟和网络回程的利用率。然而，为了适应移动网络的易变性，MEC 应用程序需要有关无线电信道状态的实时信息。 ETSI 定义的无线电网络信息服务 (RNIS) 负责为 MEC 应用程序提供有关无线电网络的最新信息。在本文中，我们首先讨论可以从 RNIS 中受益的三个用例（碰撞避免、媒体流和工业物联网）。然后，我们分析支持可扩展 RNIS 平台设计的要求和挑战，并报告原型实现及其评估。最后，我们提供了未来研究挑战的路线图。