Multi-Access Edge Cloud (MEC) in 5G
According to International Data Corp, worldwide data will grow to 163 zettabytes ie. close to trillion gigabytes by 2025. Access to increased wireless bandwidth (5G), delivering personalised content (AI/ML) and leveraging highly scalable distributed environment (cloud) is driving the fifth wave of technological transformation.
As a part of 3GPP standard, 5G adopts a CUPS architecture that segregates the user plane functions (UPF) and the control plane. This architectural shift is enabling mobile operators to move from purpose built hardware to a white box hardware that is more cost-effective.
MEC (Multi-Access Edge Cloud) leverages these ‘white box’ hardware and is considered to be a key enabler for 5G as it offers an open distributed environment for diverse vertical applications and services closer to the subscribers. This helps telco providers to open up new business value chains and an ecosystem around their networks.