Fog Computing Synergies with 5G-MEC and Content Delivery Networks

Fog computing extends cloud computing to the network edge, addressing latency and bandwidth challenges posed by IoT and 5G applications. This paper surveys how fog computing synergizes with 5G Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) and Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) to enable low-latency, high-throughput services. We review fog computing's architecture, examine fog+MEC convergence frameworks, and analyze fog-enhanced CDNs, grounding the discussion in illustrative deployment scenarios — smart-city traffic, AR/VR, and V2X — built from patterns reported in the literature, including an up-to-85% web-latency reduction reported for a fog-based CDN framework. We conclude with a critical evaluation of current limitations (security, interoperability, orchestration, economics) and future directions, including fog's role in 6G. Unlike prior surveys that treat 5G-MEC and CDN integration separately, this paper's contribution is a unified, application-grounded synthesis of both synergies.