Impact of the MEC Location in Transport Networks on the Capacity of 5G to Support V2X Services

Abstract

5G networks have been designed to support advanced and demanding services in critical verticals or industries such as connected and automated driving. Supporting advanced Vehicle to Everything (V2X) services may require installing Multi-access/Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) platforms that reduce the latency and the traffic load on the transport and core networks by deploying services and computing resources closer to the edge of networks. 3GPP and ETSI indicate that the MEC can be installed on the transport network at different locations between the base station and the core network. The specific MEC location has important technical and business implications. This has also strong implications on the dimensioning of the link capacity of the 5G transport network. In this context, this paper studies the link capacity demand that supporting advanced V2X services generate on the 5G transport network depending on the MEC location in the transport network. The paper considers gradual 5G deployments going from 5G Non-Stand-Alone (NSA) networks relying on the 4G Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network to 5G Stand-Alone (SA) deployments with a 5G Core Network. In addition, the paper evaluates the processing capabilities necessary to install V2X Application Servers (AS) at MEC nodes. The results show that it can be challenging for 5G NSA networks to support scaling V2X services, while 5G SA networks will require nonnegligible link capacities and significant MEC processing and computing power as MEC nodes are located closer to the core network and the vehicular traffic increases. These results call for careful dimensioning of the transport network and an optimized MEC location to support V2X services without starving other 5G services.