Latin America. 5G Americas announced the publication of the work '5G at the Edge', which explores the revolutionary new possibilities that arise from combining Edge Computing with 5G technologies. Edge Computing consists of locating applications, computing for general purposes, storage and associated switching and control functions necessary to perform them in relative proximity to end users and / or terminals of the Internet of Things (IoT).
Chris Pearson, President of 5G Americas, said: "Edge Computing places processing power closer to where the data collection occurs, i.e. closer to the radio access network than to the core, although this is not suitable for all cases equally. When an operator deploys edge computing, it will need to take into account its architecture in order to address specific service, application, and use cases."
This work by 5G Americas explores the role of Edge Computing in the evolution of 5G architecture, the application of cloud-native principles such as software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV), and identifies various methodologies that are being adopted for 5G applications. It covers emerging use cases in detail and outlines the demanding requirements needed to facilitate advanced mobility, computing and storage for emerging 5G wireless networks.
The paper also delves into the various industry and open source initiatives that define emerging EDGE architectures. Overall, it defines the next-generation EDGE reference architecture and analyzes the future directions of networking.
According to Pearson, "As 5G networks become more distributed, they will also become more complex and will need data processing that leverages cloud-native principles such as containerization and micro-services. Edge computing and network transformation will lead operators to enable new low-latency scenarios in Augmented Reality, V2X transportation, production, healthcare, education and more."
"A new reference architecture based on data-centric technologies, such as analytics, networking and storage for edge computing-enabled 5G systems, is being formed that will have strong implications for how wireless networks operate in the future," said Rao Yallapragada, Intel's Director of Advanced Technologies, and one of the leaders of the working group that drafted the paper.
"5G at the Edge" covers some pertinent topics:
Edge computing is critical for 5G networks to enable new applications that require reduced network latency for real-time operations, such as augmented and virtual reality for events, video and speech analysis, remote monitoring for video security, and others. Edge computing supports augmented reality applications. It also paves the way to video and discourse analysis. It accelerates the web by improving local content management. 5G networks can bring health, security and production based on ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC) to remote locations enabled by Edge Computing.
5G incorporates edge computing into wireless networks with emerging open source initiatives and standards to manage data across the network, from radio access, to transport, to the core – enabling powerful new capabilities such as network segmentation.
Edge computing employs innovative artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to improve data workload management across networks.
According to Rao, "5G and Edge Computing are mutually reinforcing. The need for low latency edge architecture drives the demand for 5G, and the increasing availability of 5G increases the takeover of workloads from the core to the edge."
