Rapid prototyping and performance evaluation of ETSI MEC-based applications

The Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) standard of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) will enable context-aware services for users of mobile 4G/5G networks. ETSI MEC application developers need tools to aid the design and the performance evaluation of their apps. During the early stages of deployment, they should be able to evaluate the performance impact of design choices - e.g., what round-trip delay can be expected due to the interplay of computation, communication and service consumption. When a prototype of the app exists, it needs to be tested live, under controllable conditions, to measure key performance indicators. In this paper, we present an open-source framework that allows developers to do all the above. Our framework is based on Simu5G, the OMNeT++ based simulator of 5G (NewRadio) and 4G (LTE) mobile networks. It includes models of ETSI MEC entities (i.e., MEC orchestrator, MEC host, etc.) and provides a standard-compliant RESTful interface towards application endpoints. Moreover, it can interface with external applications, and can also run in real time. Therefore, one can use it as a cradle to run a MEC app live, having underneath both 4G/5G data packet transport and MEC services based on information generated by the underlying emulated radio access network. We describe our framework and present a use-case of an emulated MEC-enabled 5G scenario.