What is multi-access edge computing? How is it different than regular edge computing? Hi,
I'm Dan Kehn from IBM Cloud, and before I answer those questions, please click like and subscribe.
Edge computing is about bringing compute capacity closer where data is created to reduce response
time and the load on back-end servers. Multi-access edge computing is the next logical step in edge
computing for telco cloud. It brings compute capacity directly to network's edge, literally
on the same infrastructure as the network itself. Let's go through it using an example. So we have
say an image application that does image analysis. It communicates with the core network.
That in turn works with a back-end server.
For sake of discussion, on that back-end server, let's assume we have
a service called "image analysis service" installed.
Okay, this is a classical application design pattern;
the user makes a request, it goes to a back-end server,
it formulates a response that it returns the end user. The round trip for that including latency
might be on the order of 100 milliseconds. That's perfectly fine for many applications.
But let's assume we have a more demanding application, for example, one that does video.
And it isn't using just one user that it wants to capture, it's capturing a crowd. Maybe it's
used for security purposes, maybe it's used for threat analysis -- those are just some examples.
What really drives us towards an edge computing solution are two things: First, there's a lot
of data. Now an HD video camera, that could stream as much as six megabits per second.
The other thing is the real-time aspect -- we need a real-time response,
It would be difficult to send all that data back to the back-end server, process it, and
return it in real-time. That's why we install edge servers closer to where the source of data is.
So say, for example, we install some edge servers,
and on those we install the "video analysis service".
This really helped with our latency problem. We no longer have to send data across the network
to a far away server. It also helps with our data volume problem.
We're no longer sending huge amounts of data across the network.
Where multi-access edge computing comes into play is when we add a third element,
specifically mobility.
In the prior examples, we were assuming that these edge computers were in a fixed location,
for example, at a retail location providing a shopping experience, maybe an IoT device at a
factory that's doing assembly. Those are examples where the edge computer location is known.
In this case, for multi-access edge computing, it could be anywhere. We cannot predict where the
edge computers might be located, so we install them on the network itself. So, for example, we
have a radio access network and then install it at the base station; or, we could install it
at the data center for the network itself. This really drives latency to its absolute minimum,
as little as 10 milliseconds. It also reduces the load on the back-end server for the enterprise.
We could then repurpose that for something else, for example, we could do machine learning.
So, for example, say we do machine learning training, then we take that result and we
give it to the video analysis service to improve the quality of its results.
There's a couple other different benefits that are worth noting. Because this is
running on the network's infrastructure, if there is a temporary outage between the
back-end server and video analysis, it can continue to process. Thus you have continuous operations.
Finally, there is the ability to take advantage of radio access network data.
For example, the radio access network would know where the location of the users are
and it could potentially predict where additional load would be required. This allows their network
to be much more responsive to users' needs and being able to deploy capacity where it's going to
where it's going to be needed in the future.
Multi-access edge computing means communication service
providers can bring compute capacity directly to your users no matter where or how they connect to
the network. Thank you for watching. If you have questions please drop us a line below.
If you want to see more videos like this in the future, please like and subscribe.