InterDigital awarded ETSI Specialist Task Force contract for Multi-Access Edge Computing

WILMINGTON, Del., Feb. 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- InterDigital, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDCC), a mobile and video technology research and development company, today announced that it has been awarded a Specialist Task Force (STF) contract to develop a publicly accessible “edge sandbox” environment for the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). The task force, STF587, is responsible for creating a Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) Sandbox, an online edge emulation environment designed to help application developers learn and experiment with MEC Service Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).

The STF is comprised of InterDigital technical experts that will work closely with the Industry Specification Group (ISG) MEC DECODE Working Group and the STF’s Steering Committee to develop the MEC Sandbox using agile methods. The resulting interactive sandbox environment will allow edge developers to experiment with a set of standardized edge service APIs in emulated city and indoor network environments, offering an educational and engaging experience. These APIs define the interaction among MEC services, edge applications and access networks such as 3GPP, WLAN, and Fixed.

“InterDigital’s expertise in MEC and edge emulation techniques, as reflected in their open source AdvantEDGE edge emulator, makes their team uniquely qualified to build the MEC Sandbox,” said Walter Featherstone, Senior Standards Engineer at Samsung Electronics and ISG MEC Deployment and Ecosystem Working Group chairman. “The MEC Sandbox will be a gamechanger for edge developers, giving them a fresh opportunity to interact with live APIs in an open and easy-to-navigate environment.”

The STF587 contract will produce several deliverables, including a set of sandbox emulation scenarios, a web interface for user interaction, an emulation engine to realize the scenarios, and an integrated MEC sandbox solution to be deployed on ETSI’s Forge website.

“We are honored to be chosen to lead this ETSI STF, which we hope will be valuable to edge developers and innovators across the ecosystem,” said Bob Gazda, InterDigital Senior Director for Engineering and STF leader. “InterDigital is looking forward to driving this effort and for the new opportunities it will create, including standardization activities, hackathons, and other enhancements.”

InterDigital began STF587 work in January 2020, and the contract will conclude in December 2020.