Industry Specification Group (ISG) on Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) Activity Report 2023

Chair: Dario Sabella, Intel

Developing globally applicable standards that enable the hosting of third-party applications in multi-vendor and multi-operator Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) environments.

A central building block in the evolution of mobile broadband networks, MEC (Multi‑access Edge Computing) complements NFV and SDN as a key enabler for vertical solutions. As one of the foundational architectural concepts and technologies for 5G it is also expected to be pivotal to 6G.

ETSI’s ISG (Industry Specification Group) MEC is standardizing an open environment to enable the integration of applications from infrastructure and edge service providers across MEC platforms and systems. This activity focuses on the development of a standardized solution that enables seamless integration of applications from vendors, service providers and third parties across multi-vendor MEC platforms in a distributed cloud environment. Crucial to this is the creation of a consistent set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for edge developers to build services and applications. All MEC APIs are freely available from the ETSI Forge.

This work is complemented by ISG MEC’s production of other assets including deployable Group Specifications, Group Reports, test scripts and API sandboxes that enable the hosting of third-party applications in a multi-vendor and multi‑operator MEC environment.

ISG MEC interacts regularly with other standards bodies and industry groups notably including 3GPP (e.g. SA2, SA5, SA6); GSMA OPG and OPAG; LINUX Foundation (including CAMARA, Akraino, LF Edge, CNCF, ONAP); 5GAA; GUTMA; ITU‑T; and 5G ACIA.

In 2023 ISG MEC consolidated its Phase 3 work with the publication of a number of important specifications. These notably include Group Specification GS MEC 040 – see below – that is critical for supporting requirements identified by GSMA OPG (Operator Platform Group) to enable inter-MEC system communication, and allowing 5G operators to collaborate among themselves, with service cloud providers and with other stakeholders.

During 2023 the group accordingly published (or issued revisions to) a number of MEC APIs and associated deliverables, notably: 

This Phase 3 consolidation work in 2023 anticipates the Group’s progressive transition to the next MEC Phase 4 from 2024 through to 2026, with topics identified aligning with MEC evolution toward support for cloud native communication systems and edge native design for application developers (also with container support).

2023 also saw publication of three ETSI White Papers, developed with the contribution of ISG MEC members:

#55 MEC support towards Edge Native Design (published June 2023)

#56 Unlocking Digital Transformation with Autonomous Networks: ETSI perspectives and major achievements (published March 2023)

#59 Enabling Multi-access Edge Computing in Internet-of-Things: how to deploy ETSI MEC and oneM2M (published June 2023)

Held on 14th February, the webinar ‘MEC Federation Enablement APIs: overview and instructions for use’ presented the ETSI GS MEC 040 specification on MEC Federation Enablement APIs.

On 26th June, ETSI hosted the first in a series of Multi-access Edge Computing live panels. The goal of the event was to explore the drone business from a MEC perspective. Sharing insights from experts on regulation, technology and business, sessions offered attendees an understanding how various drones use cases (such as private sky/networks and public U-spaces) can benefit from MEC.

MEC WG DECODE

With MEC Phase 3 at its final stage, ISG MEC Working Group DECODE (Deployment and ECOsystem Development) continues to manage MEC STFs, Proof of Concepts (PoCs), Deployment Trials (MDTs), MEC OpenAPI descriptions, testing/compliance and Hackathons as well as the MEC ecosystem wiki.

DECODE also curates the MEC Sandbox that offers an interactive environment where edge application developers can learn and experiment with MEC service APIs from anywhere in the world. With an emulated edge network set in Monaco, the Sandbox implements key MEC services and capabilities, including support for MEC platforms that are geographically distributed within the MEC Sandbox’s edge network. Utilization of this resource has continued to expand during the year, demonstrated through the ETSI/OCP/LF Edge Hackathon,17-19th Oct 2023 that benefited from recent V2X information service- focused capability enhancement. See try-mec.etsi.org.

Other DECODE activities during 2023 included revisions to the multi-part MEC API Conformance Test Specification. A further new Work Item was meanwhile proposed, representing a publicly accessible ‘Edge Connector’ sandbox environment on the ETSI Forge website for demonstrating and experimenting with MEC service APIs. This will build from the existing MEC Sandbox and provide access from Application Clients and API server prototypes with sufficient capability to facilitate enhanced exploration of selected MEC service APIs by application developers.

FURTHER RESOURCES

The regularly updated presentation “(Almost) everything you want to know about ETSI MEC” provides a general introduction to the group’s work.

ISG MEC members contribute to the growing MEC Tech Series of video tutorials on YouTube.

See the current list of ISG MEC Work Items in development here.