Multi-access edge computing (MEC), formerly mobile edge computing, is an

ETSI The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is an independent, not-for-profit, standardization organization operating in the field of Information and communications technology, information and communications. ETSI supports the de ...

-defined

network architecture Network architecture is the design of a computer network. It is a framework for the specification of a network's physical components and their functional organization and configuration, its operational principles and procedures, as well as commun ...

concept that enables

cloud computing Cloud computing is "a paradigm for enabling network access to a scalable and elastic pool of shareable physical or virtual resources with self-service provisioning and administration on-demand," according to International Organization for ...

capabilities and an IT service environment at the

edge Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...

of the

cellular network A cellular network or mobile network is a telecommunications network where the link to and from end nodes is wireless network, wireless and the network is distributed over land areas called ''cells'', each served by at least one fixed-locatio ...

and, more in general at the edge of any network. The basic idea behind MEC is that by running applications and performing related processing tasks closer to the cellular customer, network congestion is reduced and applications perform better. MEC technology is designed to be implemented at the

cellular base station A cell site, cell phone tower, cell base tower, or cellular base station is a cellular frequencies, cellular-enabled mobile device site where antenna (electronics), antennas and electronic communications equipment are placed (typically on a Rad ...

s or other edge nodes, and enables flexible and rapid deployment of new applications and services for customers. Combining elements of information technology and telecommunications networking, MEC also allows cellular operators to open their

radio access network A radio access network (RAN) is part of a mobile telecommunication system implementing a radio access technology (RAT). Conceptually, it resides between a device such as a mobile phone, a computer, or any remotely controlled machine and provi ...

(RAN) to authorized third parties, such as application developers and content providers. Technical standards for MEC are being developed by the

European Telecommunications Standards Institute The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is an independent, not-for-profit, standardization organization operating in the field of information and communications. ETSI supports the development and testing of global technical ...

, which has produced a technical white paper about the concept.

Distributed computing in the RAN

MEC provides a

distributed computing Distributed computing is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems, defined as computer systems whose inter-communicating components are located on different networked computers. The components of a distributed system commu ...

environment for application and service hosting. It also has the ability to store and process content close to cellular subscribers, for faster response time. Applications can also be exposed to real-time

(RAN) information. The key element is the MEC application server, which is integrated at the RAN element. This server provides computing resources, storage capacity, connectivity and access to RAN information. It supports a

multitenancy Software multitenancy is a software architecture in which a single instance of software runs on a server and serves multiple tenants. Systems designed in such manner are "shared" (rather than "dedicated" or "isolated"). A tenant is a group of us ...

run-time and hosting environment for applications. The

virtual appliance A virtual appliance is a pre-configured virtual machine image, ready to run on a hypervisor; virtual appliances are a subset of the broader class of software appliances. Installation of a software appliance on a virtual machine and packaging that ...

applications are delivered as packaged operating system

virtual machine In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is the virtualization or emulator, emulation of a computer system. Virtual machines are based on computer architectures and provide the functionality of a physical computer. Their implementations may involve ...

(VM) images or containers incorporating operating systems and applications. The platform also provides a set of

middleware Middleware is a type of computer software program that provides services to software applications beyond those available from the operating system. It can be described as "software glue". Middleware makes it easier for software developers to imple ...

application and infrastructure services.

Application software Application software is any computer program that is intended for end-user use not operating, administering or programming the computer. An application (app, application program, software application) is any program that can be categorized as ...

can be provided from equipment vendors, service providers and third-parties.

Deployment

The MEC application server can be deployed at the macro base station EnodeB that is part of an

LTE LTE may refer to: Science and technology * LTE (telecommunication) (Long-Term Evolution), a mobile telephony standard ** LTE Advanced, an enhancement ** LTE Advanced Pro, a further enhancement * Compaq LTE, a line of laptop computers * Leukotrie ...

cellular network, or at the

Radio Network Controller The Radio Network Controller (RNC) is a governing element in the UMTS radio access network (UTRAN) and is responsible for controlling the Node Bs that are connected to it. The RNC carries out radio resource management, some of the mobility managem ...

(RNC) that is part of a 3G cellular network and at a multi-technology cell aggregation site. The multi-technology cell aggregation site can be located indoors or outdoors.

Business and technical benefits

By using mobile edge computing technology, a cellular operator can efficiently deploy new services for specific customers or classes of customers. The technology also reduces the signal load of the core network, and can host applications and services in a less costly way. It also collects data about storage, network bandwidth, CPU utilization, etc., for each application or service deployed by a third party. Application developers and content providers can take advantage of close proximity to cellular subscribers and real-time RAN information. MEC has been created using open standards and

application programming interface An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software Interface (computing), interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that des ...

s (APIs), using common programming models, relevant tool chains and

software development kit A software development kit (SDK) is a collection of software development tools in one installable package. They facilitate the creation of applications by having a compiler, debugger and sometimes a software framework. They are normally specific t ...

s to encourage and expedite the development of new applications for the new MEC environment.

Applications

Since MEC architecture has only recently been proposed, there are as yet very few applications that have adopted this architecture. However, many case studies have been proposed in recent articles. Some of the notable applications in mobile edge computing are computational offloading,

content delivery Digital distribution, also referred to as content delivery, online distribution, or electronic software distribution, among others, is the delivery or distribution of information or materials through digital platforms. The distribution of digital ...

, mobile big data analytics, edge video caching, collaborative computing, connected cars, smart venues, smart enterprises, healthcare, smartgrids, service function chaining, indoor positioning, etc.

Current uses

Some applications which incorporate MEC were made available in 2015. For example, active device location tracking allows operators to track active terminal equipment, independent of

Global Positioning System The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide ge ...

devices. This is based on third-party

geolocation Geopositioning is the process of determining or estimating the geographic position of an object or a person. Geopositioning yields a set of Geographic coordinate system, geographic coordinates (such as latitude and longitude) in a given map datum ...

algorithms within an application hosted on the MEC application server. Another use is distributed content and

Domain Name System The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed name service that provides a naming system for computers, services, and other resources on the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information ...

(DNS) caching, which reduces server load and speeds up delivery of data to customers. The first commercial product available at a bigger scale is AWS Wavelength. Customers are able to run their applications on AWS services in the edge of a 4G/5G network of a specific telco.

Technical standards

Technical standards for MEC are being developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), which created a new Industry Specification Group in 2014 for this purpose. The participating companies are: Allot Communications Systems Ltd, ASTRI, AT&T, B-Com, Cadzow Communications Consulting, Ceragon Networks, Cisco Systems Belgium, ETRI, Eurecom, Fujitsu Laboratories of Europe, Hewlett-Packard France, Huawei TechnologiesFrance, Huawei Technologies(UK) Co. Ltd, IBM Europe, Intel Corporation, ISMB, InterDigital Communication, ITRI, JCP-Connect, Juniper, Motorola Mobility Ltd, National Technique Assistance Centre, NEC Europe Ltd, Nokia Solutions and Networks, NTT Corporation, NTT Docomo, Orange, PoLTE, PeerApp Ltd, PT Portugal SGPS SA, Quortus Limited, Red Hat Ltd, Saguna Networks, Samsung Electronics R&D Institute UK Ltd, Sony Europe Ltd, Sony Mobile Communications, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, Telekom Austria AG, Turk Telekom, Vasona Networks, Verizon, Viavi Solutions, Vodafone Group Services plc, Xilinx Inc., YAANA Ltd, and ZTE Corporation.

References

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