Mobile Edge Vertical Applications Using ETSI MEC APIs and Sandbox

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how ETSI MEC APIs and a sandbox environment can be used to simulate and manage the scaling of a video-on-demand application at the network edge based on user demand.

Contribution

It introduces a decision engine that utilizes MEC Location API data to dynamically scale microservices in a simulated wireless network environment.

Findings

Effective use of MEC APIs for edge application scaling

Successful simulation of wireless network conditions

Demonstrated microservice scaling based on user demand

Abstract

MEC Sandbox is an excellent tool that simulates wireless networks and deploys ETSI Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) APIs on top of the simulated wireless network. In this demo, we consume these APIs using a decision engine (DE) to scale a video-on-demand (VoD) application located on the network edge, assuming that the average number of users is a good proxy of the demand. Specifically, the developed DE uses the ETSI MEC Location API and retrieves the number of users in a given zone. The DE then takes actions at the microservice scaling level and executes them through a custom-made Kubernetes-based OpenAPI.