SK Telecom Firms Up 5G Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) Open Platform

By Embedded Advisor | Tuesday, March 19, 2019

SK Telecom announces the launch of its 5G Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) Open Platform which can enhance response times in 5G data communications. The operator plans to open up the platform to enterprise customers to facilitate them to offer new services.

MEC minimizes latency by offering a shortcut for data transmission, created by installing a small scale data center at 5G base station or router. With this, latency is reduced by up to 60 percent. The technology will be extensively used for services that require ultra-low latency such as AR/VR services, cloud gaming services, autonomous driving & fleet management, real-time live broadcasting.

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Park Jin-hyo, CTO of SK Telecom in a statement opined that "By opening up the 5G Mobile Edge Computing Platform, SK Telecom will secure the basis for expanding the MEC-related ecosystem and accelerating the release of 5G services. We will join hands with diverse companies throughout the globe to boost the adoption of MEC-based services."

SK Telecom plans to open its API that enterprise customers can use to develop MEC-based 5G services. Enterprise customers can use this platform to improve efficiency and Quality of Service by reducing latency in communications. For instance, a smart factory can handle the MEC platform and 5G network to increase the response time of manufacturing robots.

SK Telecom teamed up with MobiledgeX demonstrated a MEC-based industrial AR service at Mobile World Congress this year. They are also working with the Telecom Infra Project (TIP), the Facebook-backed tech initiative to develop an environment for MEC developers. Also, SK Telecom is discussing the application of MEC technology to new AR games of Niantic and is seeking cooperation with diverse cloud gaming companies, AR/VR service providers and cloud providers.

The company has successfully conducted a 4G-5G network dual connectivity (EN-DC) tech based on the 3GPP 5G NR standard. This test checked network device interoperability using dual connectivity technology using Samsung’s Galaxy S10 5G smartphone and its virtual core (vCore) product that supports 4G and 5G simultaneously. The companies were able to achieve data rates of 2.65 Gbps on a 5G smartphone, with 1.5 Gbps coming from 5G using 3.5-GHz frequency and 1.15 Gbps coming from LTE using 1.8-GHz, 2.1-GHz, and 2.6-GHz frequencies.

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