The successful second edition of the MEC Hackathons endorsed by ETSI recently ended in two different parts of the world simultaneously on 17–18 September in London (UK) and Shenzhen (China). The competition was open to developers to test their applications with ETSI MEC APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) in a variety of use cases.
Teams developed mobile applications for advanced services in MEC-enabled 5G networks, using ETSI MEC technologies. They were also required to onboard their applications in real-life MEC systems and connect with the MEC APIs to receive simulated in-network data.
The London MEC Hackathon was organised by Intel, VIAVI, Telefonica, Huawei, Saguna, InformaTech and MobiledgeX, and endorsed by ETSI.
Dario Sabella, vice chair of ETSI ISG MEC commented, “These MEC Hackathons revealed talented teams who have experienced the benefits gained from using real MEC platforms and MEC APIs in their edge computing applications. It’s exciting to note how this community keeps on creating interoperable systems that will bring the full benefits of MEC to emerging 5G services.”
The event in Shenzhen was organised by Huawei, CCSA and SDN/NFV/AI Industry Alliance, and endorsed by ETSI and IMT2020 (5G).
Sami Kekki, vice chair of ETSI ISG MEC, said, “We received wide interest for these events from enthusiastic global developers. They confirmed how MEC standards can unleash the power of edge computing in a broad spectrum of applications. We were impressed by the number and variety of entries and their creativity!”
Competition: exciting MEC apps developed!
An award ceremony was organised at each location.
The Hackathon Jury members and QC-LABS team, the winner of the London MEC Hackathon 2019
The MEC Hackathon 2019 winner in London, QC-LABS, showcased the “Rehearsal Room” app, an online space for musicians to help them practice together remotely in real time with MEC-like a web conferencing tool but optimised for playing instruments. Rehearsal Room leveraged Multi-access Edge Computing to reduce latency and allow musicians to rehearse without a commute! The QC-LABS team provides Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 services.
Photos capturing the mood of the MEC Hackathon China 2019 in Shenzhen.
The MEC Hackathon China 2019 in Shenzhen accepted 12 of some 50 applicant teams to the finals to demonstrate their applications in a MEC system that was integrated with a live 5G network (Huawei & CMCC). After a full day of demonstrations, pitch talks and technical Q&As, six of the teams were rewarded in the Winning Awards category and the other six got the Best of Awards for their innovative solutions. The jury of the event included experts from CCSA, SDN/NFV/AI Industry Alliance, Huawei, CMCC, China Telecom, China Unicom, CAICT and PengCheng Lab.
Open standards for the app developer ecosystem
ETSI ISG MEC has been pioneering open standards for edge computing since its inception and its tenure has recently been extended for a further two years, letting the work continue on MEC APIs and ecosystem engagements. The group also continues to develop test specifications for MEC APIs, in the DECODE Working Group, to ensure interoperability and compliance in multi-vendor, multi-network and multi-service environments and to further promote the adoption of MEC APIs by vendors and open source communities.
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