ETSI Multi-access Edge Computing group reaches 100 members confirming attractiveness of the group

Sophia Antipolis, 31 March 2020

Strategy Analytics believes that 59% of all IoT deployments will be processing data using edge computing of some form by 2025. Furthermore, a survey from ResearchAndMarkets predicts that mobile edge computing as a service market will reach $73M by 2024, driven by enterprise hosted deployments. No wonder that ISG MEC - one of ETSI’s most dynamic Industry Specification Groups - keeps growing and has now welcomed its 100th member with Mitsubishi Electric R&D Centre Europe.

“Our R&D activities on communications cover 5 main areas: automotive, factory automation, railway, satellite and access networks. Edge computing is an important tool for most of them. ETSI MEC was the first initiative focused solely on edge computing and which provides the globally applicable API specifications required by the market, evolving from Multi-Edge Computing to Multi-access Edge Computing. It is an essential group for the specification of what the industry needs for edge computing,” says Loïc Brunel, Mitsubishi Electric R&D Centre Europe.

As the volume of data generated by end devices continues to grow and the need to process and analyze it in real time becomes ever more imperative, the importance of computing at the edge emerges as a key feature of 5G systems. In particular, it is critical to support IoT applications, as well as many data-heavy applications, such as emerging interactive gaming, AR/VR tools and experiences. 5G will improve latency but it can’t absolutely guarantee it. Edge compute can.

As Alex Reznik, Chair of the ETSI MEC group reminds us, some of the benefits of edge computing are:

  • Compliance: using the edge to avoid the regional transfer of data where it’s not allowed.
  • Security: the less the distance data is sent, the less vulnerable it is to attack.
  • Cost: reducing the need to carry data deep into the network has major cost implications.
  • Duplication: if you collect data and send it to the cloud there will inevitably be some duplication. Edge computing can intercept some of it and save you money.
  • Data corruption: even without any nefarious activity from hackers, long journeys from edge-to-data-center make it more likely that data will be corrupted on the way.

ETSI MEC is helping the industry address these challenges through the release of specifications and reports, over 20 published GSs/GRs to date, white papers, API implementations and conformance testing support.  This is highlighted by the recent release of two reports on alternative virtualization technologies and network slicing on edge computing systems.

Helping application developers integrate MEC APIs
In another key development a group of experts has recently been selected to work on developing a publicly accessible, ETSI hosted, “edge sandbox” environment: an online edge emulation environment designed to help application developers learn and experiment with the MEC Service APIs.  The resulting interactive sandbox environment will allow experimentation with a set of standardized edge service APIs in both emulated city and indoor network environments, offering an educational and engaging experience. The implementation will demonstrate the interactions among MEC services, edge applications, the end users (e.g. UEs) and access networks including 3GPP LTE/5G and WLAN.  The first release will be available online later this year.

About ETSI
ETSI provides members with an open and inclusive environment to support the development, ratification and testing of globally applicable standards for ICT systems and services across all sectors of industry and society.  We are a not-for-profit body with more than 900 member organizations worldwide, drawn from 65 countries and five continents. Members comprise a diversified pool of large and small private companies, research entities, academia, government and public organizations. ETSI is officially recognized by the EU as a European Standards Organization (ESO). For more information please visit us at https://www.etsi.org/.

Contact
Claire Boyer
Mob: +33 (0)6 87 60 84 40
Email: claire.boyer@etsi.org