Industry Specification Group (ISG) on Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) Activity Report 2022
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.
Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) offers application developers and content providers cloud-computing capabilities at the edge of the network, in an environment characterized by ultra-low latency and high bandwidth together with real-time access to radio network information that can be leveraged by applications.
Allowing operators to open their Radio Access Network (RAN) to authorized third-parties, MEC enables the rapid deployment of innovative applications and services for mobile subscribers, enterprises and vertical segments. If from one hand it is a key supporting technology for many 5G use cases, MEC (given its access-agnostic nature) can be deployed also in Wi-Fi and fixed networks. Moreover, MEC is not only addressing the needs of mobile operators, but it is a key enabler for interwork also with cloud providers, edge data centres, neutral hosts. MEC enables a wide range of IoT and mission-critical vertical solutions, from gaming and Virtual Reality to Intelligent Transportation Systems and the industrial Internet. Supporting increasing QoS requirements for these applications and use cases, it also offers improved privacy and security.
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 work 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.
Anticipating widescale industry adoption of MEC solutions, in 2022 the group maintained its focus on Phase 3 activities (2021-2023) that expanded its scope from previous Phase 2 (2018-2020) by considering a heterogeneous cloud ecosystem. This MEC Phase 3 work embraces MEC security enhancements, expanded traditional cloud and NFV Life Cycle Management (LCM) approaches, and mobile or intermittently connected components and consumer-owned cloud resources.
During the year ETSI published two white papers, developed with the contribution of ISG MEC members:
#46 MEC Security; Status of Standards Support and Future Evolutions (second edition)
#49 MEC Federation: Deployment Considerations
Focused on accelerating growth of the MEC ecosystem, ISG MEC Working Group DECODE (Deployment and ECOsystem Development) continues to manage all MEC STFs, Proof of Concepts (PoCs), Deployment Trials (MDTs), MEC APIs, testing/compliance and Hackathons as well as the MEC ecosystem wiki. DECODE also curates the MEC Sandbox, an environment that allows developers to experience and interact with an implementation of ETSI MEC APIs while testing their own applications. See try-mec.etsi.org
DECODE deliverables in progress include revisions to the multi-part MEC API Conformance Test Specification. The group also plans to make regular additions to the growing MEC Tech Series of tutorials, that can be viewed on YouTube.
See the full list of MEC APIs and other deliverables published since January 2022 here.
See the current list of ISG MEC Work Items here.
Watch the ETSI MEC video: ‘MEC – Close to the user, at the EDGE!’