Japanese telco SoftBank announced it has initiated field trials for 5G multi-access edge computing (MEC) utilizing the segment routing IPv6 mobile user plane (SRv6 MUP) technology, the carrier said in a release.
SoftBank said that the technology enables an “easy realization” of MEC and network slicing, taking advantage of the main features of 5G.
“MEC can significantly reduce communication latency by deploying application servers closer to mobile devices, enabling the realization of high-speed and low-latency mobile network applications,” SoftBank said. “However, without the use of SRv6 MUP, there are concerns about increased complexity in the design, construction and operation of overall application systems due to the addition of mobile-specific switches and MEC to conventional mobile devices and cloud configurations,” it added.
