MoWIE: Toward Systematic, Adaptive Network Information Exposure as an Enabling Technique for Cloud-Based Applications over 5G and beyond (Invited Paper)

Cloud-based, adaptive applications such as video streaming and interactive cloud gaming are important to existing 4G and emerging 5G and beyond networks, as they attract a large number of users and bring significant revenues to both carriers and application service providers. These applications are also known to consume significant cellular network resources. To maintain good quality-of-experience (QoE) while minimizing network resource consumption, these applications employ adaptive mechanisms based on the changing network condition. Although various methods have been deployed to convey network information to applications running on user equipment (UEs) or cloud servers, the existing mechanisms are limited in generality and flexibility. In this paper, we propose MoWIE (Mobile and Wireless Information Exposure), a framework that uses systematic, flexible information channels to decide "what"information to expose between networks and applications and advocate an integrated in-band and out-band transport to realize "how"exposed information can be provided to applications with adaptive information exposure rate optimization. We conduct three case studies over real-world operational networks-through collaboration between one of the largest application developers and one of the largest cellular carriers in the world. These case studies, while still preliminary and ongoing, illuminate the potential benefits of systematic, adaptive network information exposure in mobile networks. We conclude by discussing remaining important yet challenging issues in implementing and deploying MoWIE in practice.