New Delhi, May 23 (IANS): The global spending on multi-access edge computing (MEC) is likely to reach $22.7 billion by 2027, from $8.8 billion this year, a new report said on Monday.

According to Juniper Research, this growth of 260 per cent will be driven by increasing requirements for on-premises machine learning and low-latency connectivity; enabled by 5G technology.

MEC is a network architecture that moves processing power and digital content to mobile network edges to provide lower latency and faster processing to end users.

The report found that operator partnerships with agile technology companies, such as AWS, IBM and Microsoft, will be essential in achieving the growth of MEC node roll-outs.

More than 3.4 million MEC nodes will be deployed by 2027; rising from less than 1 million in 2022.

"Over 1.6 billion mobile users will have access to services underpinned by MEC nodes by 2027, rising from only 390 million in 2022," the report noted.

Furthermore, mobile cloud computing is anticipated to be a highly valued MEC service among mobile users over the next five years.

"By migrating processing power to the cloud, via MEC nodes, users will benefit from faster processing power and devices with smaller form factors," the report mentioned.

It identified autonomous vehicles and smart cities as key beneficiaries of increasing MEC roll-outs.

This will reduce network strain by decreasing the physical distance that cellular data will need to travel.

Additionally, the report said that the delivery of digital content, including video streaming, cloud gaming and immersive reality, will benefit from the geographical proximity of MEC nodes and increase value proposition by improving video caching and computational offload.