AAEON Partners with NTUST and Chunghwa Telecom to Develop 5G MEC Testing Facility

August 26, 2021

News

AAEON, a manufacturer of network platforms and edge computing solutions, has partnered with the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST) and Chunghwa Telecom to help create the 5G Smart Manufacturing Technology Research and Validation Site (5G SMT RVS). This research and testing site is designed to operate and evaluate Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) server implementation, focusing on developing and refining Smart Manufacturing applications which utilize 5G cellular networks.

5G cellular communication is increasing in popularity thanks to low-latency, high-bandwidth capacity, and faster speeds, resulting in continuous growth in data traffic from content providers, video streaming, and more. However, increased demand on 5G networks threatens to throttle these advantages as more and more smart IoT applications which depend on cellular communication come online. Recently, service providers have been looking to maintain quality of service by finding a way to route traffic so not all data has to go through the core network servers.

AAEON has partnered with NTUST and Chunghwa Telecom to build a testing and validation site focused on Smart Manufacturing applications which utilize 5G networks. The Smart Manufacturing Technology and Validation Site (5G SMT RVS) is built to test, validate, and operate MEC servers, an important key to maintaining private 4G and 5G networks. MEC operates by retaining data for local applications and server tasks, reducing the amount of data transferred to central servers, and in turn reducing the reliance on the core network.

AAEON provided the hardware for the MEC server in the form of the FWS-8600 edge computing server powered by 2nd Generation Intel® Xeon® SP processors. The FWS-8600 provides a level of expandability and flexibility, allowing for configurations which include GP and AI acceleration capabilities and scalability to meet the demands of providing MEC services.

This joint project has produced a proof of concept utilizing a streaming video test. Streaming video and audio are sent to the terminal device from a surveillance camera with various parameters adjusted to test MEC server performance, including stream resolution, framerate, and number of connect users (by creating a series of "virtual users"). Test observers can measure any delay or drop in quality of the stream, as well as other factors. This allows for a number of important performance indicators to be identified that can optimize the MEC structure and 5G applications, helping improve hardware and software integration solutions.

For more information, visit AAEON.