Next-generation wireless networks will provide users ubiquitous low-latency computing services using devices at the network edge, called mobile edge computing (MEC). The key operation of MEC is to offload computation intensive tasks from users. Since each edge device comprises an access point (AP) and a computer server (CS), a MEC network can be decomposed as a radio-access network cascaded with a CS network. Based on the architecture, we investigate network-constrained latency performance, namely communication latency and computation latency under the constraints of radio-access coverage and CS stability. To this end, a spatial random network is modelled featuring random node distribution, parallel computing, non-orthogonal multiple access, and random computation-task generation. Given the model and the said network constraints, we derive the scaling laws of communication latency and computation latency with respect to network-load parameters (density of mobiles and their taskgeneration rates) and network-resource parameters (bandwidth, density of APs/CSs, CS computation rate). Essentially, the analysis involves the interplay of theories of stochastic geometry, queueing, and parallel computing. Combining the derived scaling laws quantifies the tradeoffs between the latencies, network coverage and network stability. The results provide useful guidelines for MEC-network provisioning and planning by avoiding either of the cascaded radio-access network or CS network being a performance bottleneck.
I. INTRODUCTIONOne key mission of 5G systems is to provide users ubiquitous computing services (e.g., multimedia processing, gaming and augmented reality) using servers at the network edge, called mobile edge computing (MEC) [1]. Compared with cloud computing, MEC can dramatically reduce latency by avoiding transmissions over the backhaul network, among many other advantages such as security and context awareness [2], [3]. Most existing work focuses on designing MEC techniques by merging two disciplines: wireless communications and mobile computing.In this work, we explore a different direction, namely the design of large-scale MEC networks with infinite nodes. To this end, a model of MEC network is constructed featuring spatial random distribution of network nodes, wireless transmissions, parallel computing at servers. Based on the model and under network performance constraints, the latencies for communication and