The +85 members of the ETSI Multi-access Edge Computing group (ETSI MEC ISG) are thrilled to announce the creation of the Deployment and Ecosystem Development working group (WG DECODE). This group will focus on accelerating the market adoption and implementation of systems using MEC-defined framework and services exposed using MEC-standardized Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). 

Dr. Walter Featherstone, Principal Research Engineer at VIAVI Solutions, has been elected to lead this new group. He says: “The MEC application enablement framework, with its service APIs, offers software developers an incredible opportunity to develop new and innovative services that exploit the contextual information only available at the network edge. The MEC-APIs are there, so now is the time to focus on accelerating the development of the edge ecosystem and start offering service consumers, i.e. Telco subscribers, a new level of experience. The DECODE working group provides a vehicle to do so.”

The activities of DECODE will include:

• Facilitating the use of open source components for the implementation and validation of MEC-related use cases or MEC System entities.
• Identifying best practices to implement a MEC System, by leveraging cloud application design, orchestration and automation, security and reliability advances.
• Enabling operator adoption and interoperability by developing and maintaining specifications related to testing, including guidelines and API conformance specifications.
• Increasing the accessibility and adoption of MEC specifications by exposing OpenAPI (aka Swagger) compliant MEC API descriptions via the ETSI Forge site  and in doing so, opening up the ecosystem to third-party application developers.

Additionally, ETSI MEC will soon release an updated white paper on software development for the edge cloud. A cornerstone of the efforts of the DECODE group is making it easier for software developers to develop and deploy MEC applications and the white paper is designed to be a key tool in this effort. 

“The group is transitioning to an expanded focus on operational and implementation issues, pursuing Phase 2 activities, driven by new use cases and requirements” says Alex Reznik, Chairman of the ETSI MEC ISG.

Twelve Proofs of Concept (PoCs) demonstrated the viability of MEC implementations, with the results being channelled back into specification activities. More recently, to highlight the transition of MEC from development and towards deployment, the group approved a new method for demonstrating the viability of MEC in commercial networks, termed MEC Deployment Trials (MDTs). And as always, PlugtestsTM events and hackathons offer developers a place of choice to test their products, next generation applications and development platforms.