Mobile Edge Computing

"Mobile Edge Computing" and "Multi-Access Edge Computing" describe the identical underlying architecture — proximate compute near the radio access network, reducing latency and backhaul traffic — with the naming difference reflecting a scope clarification rather than any change in the underlying technical concept itself. A system or deployment described using either name is referring to the same architectural pattern.

The practical reason this naming history is worth documenting explicitly, rather than treating "Mobile Edge Computing" as simply an obsolete synonym to ignore, is that a meaningful amount of existing technical documentation, vendor material, and industry discussion predates the rename and still uses the original terminology — a reader encountering "MEC" or "Mobile Edge Computing" in older material needs to recognize it as referring to the same concept current documentation calls Multi-Access Edge Computing, rather than assuming it describes a different or earlier-generation technology that has since been technically superseded. This is a naming clarification rather than a technology comparison, distinguishing it from genuine technology contrasts elsewhere in this corpus where two different mechanisms serve a similar purpose. For CE verticals, this naming history matters primarily for correctly interpreting legacy documentation and vendor materials referencing edge compute architecture from before the ETSI renaming took hold industry-wide.