## 3 IEC'S Characteristics and Benefits  
Distinctive characteristics of IEC are its proximity to end-users, mobility support, and densities of geographic deployment of IEC servers. IEC enhances 5G networks because it reduces the latency and enhances the use of bandwidth. The main characteristics of IEC based on ETSI white paper [48] includes proximity, ultra-low latency, high bandwidth, and virtualization. _On-premises:_ IEC can operate in stand-alone environments (for example, IEC can operate in isolation from the rest of the network) and has access to local resources. _Proximity:_ Typically, IEC servers are placed near device end-users, thus IEC can capture data from electrical device users for other purposes as analysis of data and/or processing of big data. _Ultra-low latency:_ IEC server has limited computing power, it is usually sufficient to handle emerging compute-intensive applications in real time. IEC has the potential to shorten communication latency and propagation, making IEC a promising enabler for latency-critical 5G applications. IEC also opens up opportunities to alleviate the burden on forward and back linking and to accelerate content and service response by appropriately caching popular and relevant content locally at the network edge. _Awareness of locations:_ based on the closeness of proximity, IEC can make use of signal information from end users to predict locations. This becomes somehow significant for location-based IEC services. Contextual information of Network: Featuring proximity, IEC can take advantage of real-time knowledge of radio network conditions and local contextual information to improve network and service quality. For example, contextual and real-time information can be used to improve user experience across personal services [6]. _Virtualization:_ Virtual Multiple Access Computing (vMEC) technologies are the next generation 5G networks, which is a flexible software network that supports various Internet devices and Internet of Things (IoT). vMEC is based on Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Network (SDN). With the development of diversified networking applications, vMEC brings intelligence to the edge of IEC, reduces latency and increases available capacity. In addition, the proposed use of vIEC for container-based virtualization technology (CVT) as a gateway with IoT devices for flow control mechanism in scheduling and analysis methods which effectively increases the quality of service (QoS) of the application [49]. The ultimate goal of IEC is to provide improved, low latency infrastructure with deployment speed that can be scaled horizontally or vertically based on requirements. Based on the concept of IEC, services and content can be transported to the closest end-users and obtain more quality of service while reducing connection congestion and improving gateway interconnection costs. Cloud Edge has five unique mobile computing capabilities that set it apart in the market today:  
* _Network performance:_ Cloud Edge has the ability to transfer 10\(\times\) more performance throughput than competing alternatives: more than 200 Gbps on a single Intel Xeon server. Furthermore, linear scaling, independent aircraft, data monitoring and user management allow projects to support local communities to network resources quickly and efficiently scale on the edge of the network [50; 51; 52]. * _Flexibility:_ Due to the actual use case and other related business, intelligence edge computing has flexibility to deploy a centralized or distributed solution. This flexibility is critical to economies of scale--the ability that Cloud Edge provides. For example, a CSP looking to provide multiple cloud services with low latency will benefit significantly by focusing control plane functionality (according to network proximity) but deploying user-level instances in a distributed manner either in the CSP or the customer edge. * _Divergent experiences:_ Cloud Edge enables CSP to deliver premium services to its customers on a per-flow basis.