Systems and methods are disclosed herein for using integrated access and backhaul (IAB) nodes configured to provide multi-access edge computing (MEC) functionality. An IAB node may include a MEC functionality that includes an instance of an application configured for MEC. A UE using the application connects to the network through an access link with the IAB node and establishes a PDU session for traffic of the application with a core network (CN). The CN may determine that the traffic corresponds to the application, and that an instance of the application is present on the IAB node. Accordingly, the CN may instruct the IAB donor to instantiate a remote packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer and, in some cases, a remote service data application (SDAP) layer that are configured to route the traffic from the UE for the application to the instance of the application on the IAB node.