An Open-Source Tool Modeling the ETSI-MEC Architecture in the Industry 4.0 Contex

The transition from traditional to the smart factory, promoted by Industry 4.0, was driven by the introduction of the 5-th generation of mobile systems (5G) and its related key enabling technologies. In this context, Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) emerged as a promising approach to offload computational tasks from resource-limited Industrial Internet of Thing devices to high-performance edge servers, which ensures higher service reliability and lower communication latency. While an Industry Specification Group of ETSI, namely ETSI-MEC, is sketching a MEC-oriented architecture and its related functionalities, there is an emerging scientific interest to evaluate novel solutions in a standard-compliant framework. To this end, this paper presents an extension of the network simulator ns-3, implementing entities (e.g., base stations, MEC Hosts, etc.), interactions, and functionalities (e.g., orchestration of MEC resources, distribution of tasks, etc.) standardized in the context of ETSI-MEC, while supporting multi-cell scenarios with mobile users and different user load generator models. The proposed tool has been used to evaluate the performance of a MEC-enabled industrial environment, where Unmanned Aircraft System, Automated Guided Vehicle, Industrial Internet of Things, and mixed reality devices jointly exploit computational capabilities deployed at the network edge. This study demonstrates that the proposed tool is a valid instrument to make safer and faster the assembly, maintenance, and testing phases in the upcoming smart factory realities.