Conference PaperDeployment Characteristics of "The Edge" in Mobile Edge ComputingSyamkumar, Meenakshi; Barford, Paul; Durairajan, RamakrishnanThe envisioned capabilities of mobile edge computing are predicated on a delivery infrastructure with capacity, ubiquity, robustness, and capabilities to serve a country-wide user base. In this paper, we present an empirical study of key aspects of mobile edge infrastructure toward the goal of understanding their current characteristics and identifying future deployments. We start by analyzing a dataset of over 4M cell tower locations in the US. We evaluate the geographic characteristics of deployments and highlight how locations correspond to population density in major metropolitan areas and in rural areas. We also show how deployments have been arranged along highways throughout the US. Our analysis highlight areas where new deployments would be warranted. Finally, we analyze how cell tower deployments correspond to current major data center locations and assess how micro servers might be deployed to improve response times and to better serve customers.2018-08-0110096147ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on Mobile Edge Communicationshttps://doi.org/10.1145/3229556.32295571703592National Science Foundation