External assisted application mobility in edge computing

1 . A method at a first network element for assisting a user equipment (UE) in mobile edge host switching, the method comprising:

setting up one or more geofences, one for each of one or more mobile edge hosts, based on topology information of a network comprising the one or more mobile edge hosts, setting up one or more geofences comprising:

transmitting, to a database, a request for querying geographic information associated with the topology information, the geographic information comprising, for each cell associated with each of the one or more mobile edge hosts, the longitude and latitude of the center of the cell and the radius of the cell;

receiving, from the database, the geographic information; and

setting up the one or more geofences based on the received geographic information;

detecting whether the UE moves across the boundary of a first geofence of the geofences; and

transmitting, to a second network element, a message comprising a first indicator indicating a first host switching event for the UE in response to detecting that the UE moves across the boundary of the first geofence.

2 . The method of claim 1 , where before the step of setting up one or more geofences, the method further comprises:

receiving, from the second network element, the topology information.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein before the step of receiving the topology information, the method further comprises:

transmitting, to the second network element, a request for subscribing latest topology information of the network; and

receiving, from the second network element, a response indicating success of the subscription in response to the request.

4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the received topology information comprises at least one of:

at least one cell identifier;

at least one base station identifier;

at least one routing area identifier;

at least one tracking area identifier;

at least one geographic area information associated with at least one geographic area; and

at least one civic address information associated with at least one civic address.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a geofence for a mobile edge host is a union of sub-geofences corresponding to cells associated with the mobile edge host, each of the sub-geofences having a same center as that of its corresponding cell and a greater radius than that of its corresponding cell by an extended length.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the extended length is dynamically adjustable on a cell basis.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of detecting whether the UE moves across the boundary of a first geofence of the geofences comprises:

receiving, from the UE, location reports indicating current locations of the UE periodically;

determining whether the UE moves across the boundary of the first geofence based on at least two consecutively received location reports, the prior one of which indicating that the UE is located outside of the first geofence and the subsequent one of which indicating that the UE is located inside of the first geofence.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein each of the location reports further comprises an edge application instance ID indicating an edge application instance by which the UE is being served, and

wherein the message transmitted to the second network element further comprises the edge application instance ID and a source mobile edge host ID associated with the edge application instance and indicating a mobile edge host currently serving the UE.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein before the step of transmitting, to a second network element, a message comprising a first indicator indicating a first host switching event for the UE in response to detecting that the UE moves across the boundary of the first geofence, the method further comprises:

detecting whether the UE moves across the boundary of a second geofence of the geofences,

wherein the message transmitted to the second network element further comprises a second indicator indicating a second host switching event for the UE in response to detecting that the UE moves across the boundary of the second geofence.

10 . A first network element, comprising:

a processor;

a memory storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

set up one or more geofences, one for each of one or more mobile edge hosts, based on topology information of a network comprising the one or more mobile edge hosts, setting up one or more geofences comprising:

transmitting, to a database, a request for querying geographic information associated with the topology information, the geographic information comprising, for each cell associated with each of the one or more mobile edge hosts, the longitude and latitude of the center of the cell and the radius of the cell;

receiving, from the database, the geographic information; and

setting up the one or more geofences based on the received geographic information;

detect whether the UE moves across the boundary of a first geofence of the geofences; and

transmit, to a second network element, a message comprising a first indicator indicating a first host switching event for the UE in response to detecting that the UE moves across the boundary of the first geofence.