Optimized mobile connectivity for bandwidth-hungry, delay-tolerant cloud services toward 5G

The availability of different generations of radio access technologies (e.g., from 2G to 4G) and multiple coverage layers (e.g., macro- and small cell-layers) results in a larger selection of connectivity options at the disposal of mobile devices, each with their own connection characteristics (e.g., in terms of quality of service, power consumption and billing). Toward heterogeneous 5G radio access networks it is essential to provide new requirements and solutions for mobile cloud connectivity in order to optimize the tradeoff between the available connectivity options and timing of the communication. In this paper, we propose context-aware connectivity management for bandwidth-hungry, delay-tolerant cloud services; and address the potential gains and challenges with the help of system-level performance evaluations.