SoftBank last week announced that it opened a 5G MEC (Multi-access Edge Computing) site in the Kanto region and started the nationwide deployment of MEC servers in Japan from May 2022.
SoftBank 5G MEC delivers a low-latency, high-quality (low-jitter) and highly secure service experience by using 5G SA (5G Stand Alone) commercial services, which SoftBank began rolling out in October 2021, a Japan first. As a digital platform provider in the Beyond 5G era, SoftBank will work to solve societal issues and contribute to the development of industry by promoting the digital transformation (DX) of various enterprises and realizing Digital Twin.
Until now, when a user accessed an application or service, a communication path was set up from the user device to a relatively far away application server. SoftBank's 5G MEC now makes it possible for customers to experience high-speed, low-latency services through the deployment of applications close to user devices within the 5G SA network, which significantly reduces server access times.
SoftBank's 5G MEC platform provides a Kubernetes*3-based container environment, which is a de facto standard for application development. From physical infrastructure set-up to application deployment and distribution, 5G MEC sites are automated. Such features make applications on the 5G MEC platform more fault-tolerant, and they also enable faster service rollout with reduced complexity, both for application developers and application providers (such as SaaS providers). This improves a variety of industry services such as emergency notifications (sent in the event of natural disasters, for example), in-building IoT-based network deployments, factory automation, multi-user network gaming, automated driving, among others.
SoftBank is promoting proof of technology for a wide variety of use cases with participating companies and organizations in the SoftBank 5G Consortium, as well as for other partners, and is driving the nationwide deployment of 5G MEC. Furthermore, SoftBank is integrating 5G MEC with SRv6 Flex Algo*4 and SRv6 Mobile User Plane (SRv6 MUP)*5 to provide quick and flexible services, such as network slicing—which provides virtual networks according to individual customer service requirements—and low-latency services that leverage the features of 5G MEC.
Keiichi Makizono, SoftBank Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO)
This deployment of 5G MEC is a major milestone for SoftBank. Its compatibility with SRv6 MUP and network slicing, along with its automation of operation features, make it unique across the industry. With our partners, we'll develop a multi-industry ecosystem to become a complete digital platform provider by harnessing the capabilities of our 5G MEC solution.
