Multi-access edge computing (MEC) offers cloud computing capabilities and IT services situated at the edge of the network.
MEC works by processing data between the cloud and the user. By moving some of the computing capability out of the public cloud and closer to the end user and end devices, data doesn’t have to travel as far, which means it can be processed faster.
Dedicated MEC is deployed at a customer’s site on a mobile private network and is dedicated to one business. The other variant, distributed MEC, runs on a public 4G/5G network and is used especially when connecting moving assets and things. Applications run locally, we get real-time response rates and almost instantaneous decision-making. This avoids issues with latency or data congestion.
This technology is widely used in video analytics, location services, augmented reality, local content distribution or data caching, among many others.