Relocation of mobile edge computing services

1. A base station of a radio access network of a cellular network, comprising:

at least one interface configured to communicate with a terminal and to communicate with a mobile edge server of a mobile edge system, and

at least one processor configured to provide a service of the mobile edge server to the terminal,

wherein the at least one processor is further configured to send a first control message to the mobile edge system, the first control message being indicative of a predicted handover of the terminal from the base station to one or more candidate base stations of the radio access network.

2. The base station of claim 1 ,

wherein the at least one processor is configured to send a second control message to the mobile edge system, the second control message being indicative of execution of the predicted handover to a target base station selected from the one or more candidate base stations.

3. The base station of claim 2 ,

wherein the first control message and/or the second control message comprises a timing information,

wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the handover in accordance with the timing information.

4. A mobile edge control node of a mobile edge system, comprising:

at least one interface configured to communicate with a plurality of base stations of a radio access network of a cellular network and to communicate with a plurality of mobile edge servers of the mobile edge systems associated with the plurality of base stations, and

at least one processor configured to receive a first control message indicative of a predicted handover of a terminal from a source base station of the plurality of base stations to one or more candidate base stations of the plurality of base stations.

5. The mobile edge control node of claim 4 ,

wherein the at least one processor is configured to check if a source mobile edge server associated with the source base station is different from one or more candidate mobile edge servers associated with the one or more candidate base stations.

6. The mobile edge control node of claim 4 ,

wherein the source base station is associated with a source mobile edge server and wherein the one or more candidate base stations are associated with one or more candidate mobile edge servers different from the source mobile edge server,

wherein the at least one processor is configured to send a third control message instructing to implement a shadow copy of a service provided by the source mobile edge server via the source base station to the terminal at the one or more candidate mobile edge servers.

7. The mobile edge control node of claim 4 ,

wherein the at least one processor is configured to receive a second control message from the source base station, the second control message being indicative of execution of the predicted handover to a target base station selected from the one or more candidate base stations.

8. The mobile edge control node of claim 6 ,

wherein the at least one processor is configured to receive a second control message from the source base station, the second control message being indicative of execution of the predicted handover to a target base station selected from the one or more candidate base stations, and

wherein the at least one processor is configured to trigger relocation of the service from the source mobile edge server to a target mobile edge server associated with the target base station based on the shadow copy and in response to receiving the second control message.

9. The mobile edge control node of claim 8 ,

wherein the first control message and/or second control message comprises a timing information,

wherein the at least one processor is configured to trigger relocation of the service in accordance with the timing information.

10. A mobile edge server of a mobile edge system, comprising:

at least one interface configured to communicate with a source base station of a radio access network of a cellular network, with a mobile edge control node of the mobile edge system, and with a plurality of further mobile edge servers, and

at least one processor configured to provide a service to a terminal connected via a radio channel of the radio access network with the source base station,

wherein the at least one processor is further configured to receive a third control message instructing to implement a shadow copy of the service at one or more candidate mobile edge servers of the plurality of further mobile edge servers,

wherein the at least one processor is further configured to implement the shadow copy at the one or more candidate mobile edge servers, prior to a handover of the terminal from the source base station, in response to receiving the third control message.

11. The mobile edge server of claim 10 ,

wherein the at least one processor is configured to repeatedly synchronize the service with the shadow copy at the one or more candidate mobile edge servers.

12. The mobile edge server of claim 10 ,

wherein the at least one processor is configured to relocate the service to a target mobile edge server selected from the one or more candidate mobile edge servers based on the shadow copy and in response to being triggered by the mobile edge control node.

13. The mobile edge server of claim 12 ,

wherein the at least one processor is configured to relocate the service to the target mobile edge server in accordance with a timing information provided by the mobile edge control node.

14. The mobile edge server of claim 12 ,

wherein the at least one processor is configured to check validity of the shadow copy at a target mobile edge server when relocating the service to the target mobile edge server.

15. The mobile edge server of claim 10 ,

wherein the shadow copy comprises at least one of the following: an application context of the service; an operational state of at least one processing unit executing the service; and a program code of the service.

16. A mobile edge server of a mobile edge system, comprising:

at least one interface configured to communicate with a target base station of a radio access network of a cellular network, with a mobile edge control node of the mobile edge system, and with a source mobile edge server, and

at least one processor configured to receive a third control message instructing to implement a shadow copy of a service provided by the source mobile edge server to a terminal,

wherein the at least one processor is further configured to implement the shadow copy, prior to a handover of the terminal to the target base station, in response to receiving the third control message.

17. The mobile edge server of claim 16 ,

wherein the at least one processor is configured to relocate the service from the source mobile edge server based on the shadow copy and in response to being triggered by the mobile edge control node.

18. The mobile edge server of claim 17 ,

wherein the at least one processor is configured to activate the shadow copy as a live instance of the service when relocating the service,

wherein the at least one processor is configured to provide the service to the terminal connected via a radio channel of the radio access network with the target base station in response to said activating the shadow copy as the live instance.