MEC Networks

This chapter describes the mobile network environment and details the three sets that make up a mobile network and Mobile Edge Computing or Multi‐access Edge Computing (MEC). It describes 5G, which is an important support for building MEC networks that can include Device to Device extensions to connect nodes in a participatory network together. The 5G Edge lies between the Fog and the Cloud. It concerns the largest datacenters on the Edge by supporting users connected through a 5G link. Mobile/Multi‐access Edge Computing has been defined by the European standards body European Telecommunications Standards Institute to take into account very short reaction times between the user and the data center that controls the user's applications. MEC data centers can also be grouped together in a pool by connecting them via optical fibers so that one data center can be offloaded to other centers if necessary.