MEC Capacity Calculator
Size multi-access edge compute: offloaded traffic, edge server count and the round-trip latency saved versus the central core.
About MEC Capacity Calculator
Local breakout removes the eligible share of traffic from the backhaul entirely, so the same figure is both the compute load at the edge and the transport saving upstream. The latency benefit is the difference between the two round-trip paths, which is what determines whether a use case such as cloud gaming or AR becomes viable. MEC only pays for itself when the offload share is large enough to defer a backhaul upgrade or the latency saving unlocks a service the central core cannot deliver.
Formula
MEC Capacity
local traffic = total × offload share; servers = ceil(local ÷ per-server throughput) + 1; latency saved = core RTT − edge RTT.
- offload share
- Fraction of sessions that can terminate at the edge instead of the core
- N+1
- One spare server so maintenance does not cut capacity
Worked example
With the default values below, MEC Capacity Calculator returns Traffic Served Locally of 7.00. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.
Inputs used
- Total user-plane traffic at the edge siteaccepts 0.1–2,000 Gbps
- 20 Gbps
- Traffic eligible for local breakoutaccepts 1–100 %
- 35 %
- Throughput per edge serveraccepts 0.1–400 Gbps
- 8 Gbps
- Round-trip latency to the central coreaccepts 1–500 ms
- 28 ms
- Round-trip latency to the edge siteaccepts 0.1–200 ms
- 6 ms
Results
- Traffic Served Locally
- 7.00 Gbps
- Edge Servers Required (N+1)
- 2
- Round-Trip Latency Saved
- 22.0 ms
- Backhaul Traffic Avoided
- 7.00 Gbps
- Latency Improvement
- 78.6%
Step by step
- 1Values used
- 2MEC Capacity
- 3Traffic Served Locally= 7.00 Gbps
- 4Edge Servers Required (N+1)= 2
- 5Round-Trip Latency Saved= 22.0 ms
- 6Backhaul Traffic Avoided= 7.00 Gbps
- 7Latency Improvement= 78.6
Assumptions and limits
- The result is derived only from the 5 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
- In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax or compounding frequency into account.
- Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.
How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is MEC Capacity calculated?
local traffic = total × offload share; servers = ceil(local ÷ per-server throughput) + 1; latency saved = core RTT − edge RTT. Local breakout removes the eligible share of traffic from the backhaul entirely, so the same figure is both the compute load at the edge and the transport saving upstream. The latency benefit is the difference between the two round-trip paths, which is what determines whether a use case such as cloud gaming or AR becomes viable.
Why does MEC Capacity matter?
MEC only pays for itself when the offload share is large enough to defer a backhaul upgrade or the latency saving unlocks a service the central core cannot deliver.
What values do I need to enter?
This calculator takes 5 inputs: Total user-plane traffic at the edge site, Traffic eligible for local breakout, Throughput per edge server, Round-trip latency to the central core, Round-trip latency to the edge site. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.