FEATURE: MWC ISSUE PART 2: ARCHITECT THIS!
In Part II of this two part look at the evolution of edge computing in the mobile network, TMN looks at recent developments within operators and vendors to drive adoption. It is apparent that MEC is very much in its infancy in terms of operator deployments. TMN’s survey of vendors and operators found many trials and Proofs of Concept, but few live deployments to speak of. An exception is in the area of traffic optimisation and intelligence. Here, one of the earlier companies to identify the edge of the network as the place where intelligent traffic optimisation decisions can be made, Vasona Networks, has been making strides. John Reister, VP Marketing and Product, says that Vasona’s edge app controller — SmartAir — is now deployed on over 100,000 cell sectors in the Americas and Europe. But it is the applications emerging from Vasona’s presence near the edge that is engaging Reister the most. “I think in terms of what’s emerging — I’m really excited on the app side around mobile throughput guidance. With Smart Guided Video Rate we are now starting to get traction with an IETF
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draft and the GSMA is in the process of producing an informational package and description for operators to start implementing the technology.” Vasona says that the technology has achieved a 20% reduction in “stall time” over a trial period of 200,000 video sessions. Vasona is different to some companies in that is doesn’t sit at the extreme edge of the network, but rather a level back — giving it an aggregated view of clusters of cell sites. It can then make decisions based on a view of hundreds of sites, giving it the ability to understand the conditions of a cell a user is handing over into, as well as the current cell ID. In fact, one frustration for Vasona to date has been that because its technology is labelled MEC, it must be a base station technology. “We had an operator say, ‘We love what you are doing but we are not a fan of MEC because we don’t believe in compute resources at every eNodeB — as we have tens of thousands of sites it would be so expensive’. It’s so frustrating that there’s this misperception that MEC means you have to deploy all the MEC platform and infrastructure at every single eNodeB. Where we deploy generally one installation covers in the order of 300-500 eNodeB’s and 3-8,000 cell sector carriers. That’s much more cost effective and scales better for the operator.”