March 8, 2021 By Jeffrey Palmer 2 min read

Imagine you’re a spectator at an outdoor stadium watching a football game or enjoying a concert. An unexpected, severe storm hits, and you have to be rushed out in a safe and secure manner.

Minutes later, you hear an announcement that the event is canceled, and you’re sandwiched in with thousands of others – everyone wanting to get to the same mass transportation services as quickly as possible.

This sounds like a potentially bad scenario, but with the right 5G mobile technology, the stadium can easily transmit local content to the public. In real-time, they can communicate the safest and most efficient steps to get people where they need to go and make sure they all followed their individual paths – all thanks to multi-access edge computing (MEC) — also known as mobile edge computing. 

What is multi-access edge computing (MEC)?

MEC can be defined as cloud services running at the edge of a network and performing specific tasks — in real- or near-real-time — that would otherwise be processed in centralized core or cloud infrastructures. MEC moves computing power closer to the end-user in order to enable applications and services requiring unique connectivity characteristics such as ultra-low latency. It allows content, services and applications to be accelerated by increasing their responsiveness.

Characteristics of MEC

  • Close proximity: Being close to the source of information, edge captures key information for analytics and processing, thereby reducing the need to backhaul data to core locations.
  • Real-time:  Applications that benefit from MEC are ones that require near-real or real-time decision processing and outcomes.
  • Low latency: Typically characterized by latency of under 20 milliseconds. This provides faster response and improved user experience.
  • Continuous operations: Edge applications are localized, meaning they can run independently from the rest of the network — even autonomously if disconnected from the core.
  • Interoperability: MEC does not require adoption or migration of applications to the new environment, which makes development and deployment more efficient.

For the Communications Service Provider (CSP), new applications that are aware of the local context in which they operate (RAN and vRAN conditions, locality, subscriber information, etc.) can open up entire new service categories. For example, mobile operators that are now introducing 5G can leverage the same cloud native infrastructure to run both MEC and vRANs on the same COTs hardware.  

Placing relevant applications on or near the base station not only offers advantages to consumer and enterprise end users, it also reduces the volume of traffic offloaded to the core network and minimizes operational costs (OPEX) and helps to address security and data governance issues

Finally, MEC means being able to rapidly deploy new services for consumer and enterprise business segments, which can help them differentiate their service portfolio and increase new revenue streams.

Ready to learn more?

Please take the time to explore other use cases — such as Open RAN, vRAN and 5G network slicing — and further examine the ways automation and AIOps support 5G network transformation. In the meantime, please check out the following resources:

Was this article helpful?
YesNo

More from Cloud

Private cloud use cases: 6 ways private cloud brings value to enterprise business

7 min read - As cloud computing continues to transform the enterprise workplace, private cloud infrastructure is evolving in lockstep, helping organizations in industries like healthcare, government and finance customize control over their data to meet compliance, privacy, security and other business needs.  According to a report from Future Market Insights (link resides outside ibm.com), the global private cloud services market is forecast to grow to USD 405.30 billion by 2033, up from USD 92.64 billion in 2023.  What is a private cloud? A private cloud is…

Hyperscale vs. colocation: Go big or go rent?

9 min read - Here’s the situation: You’re the CIO or similarly empowered representative of an organization. Different voices within your business are calling attention to the awesome scalability and power of hyperscale computing, which you’ve also noticed with increasing interest. Now the word comes down from on high that you’ve been tasked with designing and implementing your company’s hyperscale computing solution—whatever that should be. Your organization already has an ambitious agenda in mind for whatever IT infrastructure you wind up choosing. The company…

IBM Tech Now: March 25, 2024

< 1 min read - ​Welcome IBM Tech Now, our video web series featuring the latest and greatest news and announcements in the world of technology. Make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified every time a new IBM Tech Now video is published. IBM Tech Now: Episode 95 On this episode, we're covering the IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2024: IBM X-Force Cyber Range Combating deepfakes Stay plugged in You can check out the IBM Blog Announcements for a full rundown…

IBM Newsletters

Get our newsletters and topic updates that deliver the latest thought leadership and insights on emerging trends.
Subscribe now More newsletters