Member-only story
Some of the popular terms in Edge computing we get to hear — MEC Edge, MEC node, MEC App, MEC platform, MEC host, etc. When I first heard about Multi-Access Edge Computing, I was looking to figure out if each of these terms have a specific list of attributes. Why is it named Multi-Access and not something else? Why is it so popular today? Many consortia are working on Edge architectures, what is so unique about this one? If you are someone looking to know more about MEC, this article is for you.
The MEC initiative is an Industry Specification Group (ISG) within the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), whose purpose is to create a standardized, open environment which allows for an efficient and seamless integration of applications from vendors, service providers, and third parties across multi-vendor Multi-access Edge Computing platforms. ETSI MEC provides set of standards, specifications and API definitions that help enable various edge service models across the different types of edge deployments. Figure 1 provides high level architecture.
Why is it named Multi-Access?
Due to the nature of Edge computing, multiple types of deployment scenarios are possible for Edge such as IoT or On Premise or Wireless Access, etc. (More info: 4 Types of Edge Computing — Broadly Categorized). End users need a common unified approach to access compute services across these various types of Edge computing. The main purpose of multi-access being to unify the infrastructure under common set of interfaces to enable API developers provide seamless access to Edge compute infrastructure.
What’s with the names?
Lets look at some of the terms used in MEC Architecture, as defined by ETSI GS MEC 003 v2.1.1:
MEC Host:
The entity that contains the MEC platform and a virtualization infrastructure which provides compute, storage, and network resources for the MEC applications. The host infrastructure provides all the necessary components to operate in an Edge Cloud environment
MEC Platform:
Provides broad set of functions within a MEC Host that enable MEC Apps operational within a MEC…
