Mobile Edge computing, Technology or Architecture in support of Apps and IoT
As I get older, two principles seem truer today than ever before. The first truth is the Universe is continually expanding and moving to a state of greater entropy. This universe is defined by anti-matter, dark energy and a continual push for separation or ‘anti-convergence.’ My second truth, not bound by mathematical definition or equation, but rather by personal observation is technology, in a services sense, and its evolution is continually searching for convergence. In its journey for convergence new technologies, phenomenon, models or even industries may be born and with birth comes the instinctive desire to converge. Let’s call this Reid’s Law of Digital Service Convergence.
Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) is a term I have been reading about recently. As I have read about its defining features, its construct and architecture, I have wondered if this was really something new in respect of technology or rather, and more specifically, the result of an evolving architecture in service of projected increases in the wants and needs of the digital customer in defining new standard as to how Mobile Network Operator’s (MNO’s) will offer a greater variety of services to an ever increasingly service-centric consumer. Notwithstanding the debate of technology over architecture where does the ‘magic’ lie in respect to this new architecture/technology called MEC?
A few years ago Software Defined Networking revolutionised the Networking paradigm and saw Network Function virtualisation as the killer networking application in respect to Networking. The mystery around SDN was, I argued, a matter of a newer architecture enabled by improvements in Hardware (faster processors and memory) together with improved and learned attitudes around using software development to abstract hardware functionality into software. This preference to develop fast, test, fail and quickly fix rather than slow and careful development, testing before burning logic into silicon enabled faster more innovating and agile development cycles. Can it be that MEC is another like progression toward a more favourable architecture rather than a new technological step forward? Are the technology commentators right, is (MEC) the new technology that will enable Mobile Network Operator to behave like nibble ‘Over The Top’ (OTT) Operators, or is it a simpler matter of maturation of a network architecture seeing a the control plan managed globally and the data plan managed locally in furtherance of delivery of a service at the doorstep of the customer? Are these the magical ingredients and if not what is missing?
MEC has been defined as personalised IT and Cloud computer services residing in a virtualised environment offering services in real-time. The virtual clouded services reside at a proximity closest to the customer, at the Mobile Network Edge, to ensure low latency and extra high bandwidth. This point is defined by openness where third party vendors, collaborators and others come and create innovative services in partnership with the mobile network operator. The focus of Mobile Edge Computing seems to be ‘customer-centricity’ where high demand customer service applications are tested within a data networked environment ensuring customer satisfaction well beyond the standard Telecom, Service Level Agreements (SLA’s). This is all done in a coterie of sharing and corroboration with a view to create open API’s and transparent management interfaces so others can add and innovate around the MNO’s business and services platform. It almost seems the MNO’s are taking a leaf out of the large e-commerce platforms book in respect of opening up and levelling out the business architecture to create something everyone can contribute to. But it is new technology or rather the MNO’s learning from the success of the large web monoliths?
Mobile Edge Computer, whatever it is for now, did not happen in a vacuum and owes its technological birth, in part, to the continual development in Cell, Antenna (MIMO), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) and other wireless technologies. Just as wireless technology evolved seeing 3G maturing to 4G (LTE), 4G will mature to 5G enabling a faster, better and denser wireless environment via Carrier aggregation, MIMO and Co-operative MIMO, and the introduction of small cell technology seeing hundreds or thousands of entry points into the 5G mobile network.
The MNO’s are looking to MEC to galvanise interest, initialise intent and recognise the building of products and services via open API’s where the community of developers will be free to collaborate with the MNO and corroborate one-another to build new innovative services. This intuitively suggests the MNO’s have recognised just how huge the potential is around new industries like IoT, but not IoT the connectivity business, nor IoT the middleware (Big Data) business, but IoT the application services business, as the leading US Carriers (AT&T, Verizon et al.) have predicted as much as 80% of future IoT revenue will be built on application services rather than connectivity or big data.
For now I believe MEC, holistically, is not new technology in itself, but the result of a ‘mash-up’ of innovative new technology around what 5G promises to be, as well as intuitive new network architecture, re-working NFV and pushing computing power to the edge of the network for performance. This new architecture is built on the premise of SDN and NFV with a particular penchant to customer centricity where others, outside of the once closed MNO ecosystem, are engaged with and ‘courted,’ for input, idea, intelligence and insight. Part of the Mobile Edge Computing DNA is, I argue, a result of the MNO’s learning curve of a decade ago, where successful e-commerce platform players, like FaceBook et al. (web 2.0) showed how huge amounts of extrinsic value could be built from harnessing those outside the ecosystem and having them contribute, at no cost or little cost to the platform.
The above sounds very much like the MNO’s are seeing an application services rich environment where IoT apps and other speciated technologies including context awareness are enabled via platform as a service technology via mobile edge computing. The true magic is the MNO’s are welcoming others to take part in open sourced, horizontally ‘architectured,’ opened ecosystems where the premise of what a true platform is, the value exchange of supply and demand, comes to fruition. Seems to me the progressive and modern MNO’s are now thinking and behaving like web e-commerce companies. Is this proof that Reid’s Law of Digital Service Convergence is vindicated?
About the Author: I am an experienced Over the Top (OTT) Software as a Service (SaaS) entrepreneur and innovator having co-founded a start-up in voice, messaging and communications in 2006 and operated and established software development offices in China, Serbia and Spain. Building a communications platform I developed expertise over mobile platforms, app development, and web development, both front and back end. Please contact me at: reidpeter@outlook.com if you would like to discuss employment, both consulting and full-time employment.
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