Home Edge Enabler Server

Description

The Home Edge Enabler Server (H-EES) is a core component of the 3GPP Edge Computing architecture defined in TS 23.558. It operates within the subscriber's Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN) and acts as the central control point for edge application enablement when the user is roaming. The H-EES does not host the actual edge applications; instead, it manages the service registration, discovery, and session continuity aspects. It maintains a registry of available edge applications and services subscribed to by the user or offered by the home operator. When a roaming user requests an edge service, the H-EES interacts with the Visited Edge Enabler Server (V-EES) in the Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN) to facilitate the setup. This interaction includes authorizing the service request, discovering suitable edge application instances in the visited network based on latency requirements and user location, and ensuring the user's service profile and policies are applied. The H-EES communicates with the V-EES via the Ees-EE (Edge Enabler Server - Edge Enabler) reference point. Its architecture is designed to be separate from the user plane, focusing on control and management functions. It integrates with the Network Exposure Function (NEF) for secure API exposure and with the Unified Data Management (UDM) for subscriber data. The H-EES plays a pivotal role in the edge computing ecosystem by abstracting the complexity of the underlying network topology from application providers, enabling them to offer seamless low-latency services to mobile users across different operator domains.

Purpose & Motivation

The H-EES was created to solve the challenge of delivering consistent, low-latency edge computing services to mobile users who are roaming outside their home network. Prior to its introduction, edge computing deployments were largely confined to single operator domains, making it difficult to guarantee the performance requirements of applications like autonomous vehicles, augmented reality, or real-time gaming for traveling subscribers. The lack of a standardized mechanism for home network control and policy enforcement in a visited network's edge environment hindered the commercial rollout of global edge services. The H-EES addresses this by providing a standardized home network anchor for edge service management. It enables the home operator to maintain control over the service experience, apply consistent policies, and ensure security and billing integrity even when the computing resources are in a foreign network. Its creation in Release 18 was motivated by the industry's push towards ubiquitous edge computing and the need for 3GPP to define the roaming architecture for 5G Advanced networks, facilitating interoperability between operators and fostering a broader ecosystem for edge application developers.