With the tremendous interest in digitization in all vertical industries – 5G is a crucial technology. Edge computing or Mobile Edge Computing is a critical aspect of the 5G network and provides communication service providers with a first-mover advantage in capturing new market opportunities.

What is edge computing?

Edge computing is a part of a distributed topology of computing in which information processing is located near the edge – where objects and people generate or consume the information.

Edge computing at its core level takes processing and data storage closer to the devices where it is being stored, rather than depending on a central location that may be thousands of miles away. This is done to prevent data, particularly real-time data, suffering from latency issues which can affect the performance of an application. Therefore, companies can save money by getting the processing performed locally, reducing the amount of data that needs to be processed at a centralized or cloud-based venue.

What is ideal for edge computing?

Edge computing has been developed because of the increasing growth of IoT devices that link to the internet for either receiving cloud information or returning data to the cloud. And a lot of IoT devices produce large quantities of data during their operations.

Think of machines on a factory floor that control production equipment, or an internet-connected video camera that sends live videos from a remote office. While a single device that produces data can easily transmit it across a network, issues occur when the number of devices that transmit data at the same time increases. Instead of transmitting live footage through one video camera, multiply that by hundreds or thousands of devices. Performance does not only suffer because of latency, but the bandwidth costs can be enormous.

In several of these applications, edge-computing hardware and services help solve this problem by being a local source of processing and storage. For example, an edge gateway can process data from an edge computer, and then send back only the relevant data through the cloud, reducing bandwidth requirements. And in the case of real-time application needs, it may send data back to the Edge unit.

These edge devices can include several different items in the office breakroom, such as an IoT sensor, a laptop computer for an employee, their new smartphone, the surveillance camera, or even the internet-connected microwave oven. Edge gateways themselves inside an edge-computing network are called edge devices.

Edge computing function in 5G

By 2023, 5G would make up about one-fifth of all mobile data traffic, relying on edge computing resources for 25 percent of use cases.

Much of the latest 5G revenue opportunities will come from business & IoT services, many of which will focus on edge computing.

Advanced Virtual Reality (VR) and gaming technologies can exploit the improved user experience that edge computing will offer for consumers. Therefore, edge technologies would be an integral technology for any service provider as part of a 5G network.

Communication Service Providers (CSP) are looking for new sources of revenue to develop their businesses, especially in the technology field which will become increasingly relevant in the future. Now they are in a great place to produce new services with the launch of 5G and edge computing.

The edge computing opportunity can be seen in a broader sense of the business opportunity, where edge computing can be an enabler for many wider use cases, for example within the Internet of Things (IoT) and possibly combined with other enterprise services such as private 5G networks.

Edge computing function in 5G

With the rapid growth of connected devices, as well as the increasing usage of phones and tablets, traffic growing soon overwhelm conventional centralised networks. By 2021, 25 billion connected devices would generate unparalleled quantities of raw data. This problem will need receptiveness and reliability at the next level.

IT aims to tackle the imminent data explosion with a distributed IT architecture moving data centre capital toward the periphery of the network.

The key benefits of developing an edge computing architecture are reduced bandwidth consumption, reduced latency, cost savings, and improved protection and reliability.

Reduced use of bandwidth: Installing an edge system on or near the source of data will allow the majority of data to be stored and processed there. This reduces the amount of data that is being transferred to the cloud, which in turn reduces the amount of network bandwidth that IoT devices use.

Reduction of latency: Data from IoT devices does not have to move large distances to a cloud data centre in an edge computing architecture. This reduction in distance decreases processing delays and increases response times, suitable for any military, industrial or commercial application where security, safety, or productivity in manufacturing is important.

Cost savings: Increased use of bandwidth costs more money. Less bandwidth is being used in an edge computing architecture which translates directly into saved dollars.

Improved protection and reliability: Data is stored and processed at multiple locations near the source with edge computing, rather than at a cloud data centre where a single cybersecurity attack or maintenance activity may completely destroy the network or lead to widespread release of sensitive data. If the storage and processing of data are delegated to edge devices, the consequences of security breaches and maintenance delays are likewise. In addition, cyber-attacks and routine maintenance will be restricted to one or two edge devices rather than a whole data centre.

How Teceze can help with edge computing?

Teceze will bring a wealth of AI-enabled analytics, allowing real-time sharing of resources from the centre to the edge and delivery through an operator ecosystem. Teceze approach will allow for the automated sharing of revenues within the ecosystem based on SaaS. In addition, Teceze will orchestrate services and virtualization functions that allow for the rapid real-time spin-up of applications.

With over 10 years of industry leadership in networking, Teceze supports over 100 of the largest, most stable networks in the world. Teceze has been at the forefront of innovation over the years, with many market firsts in all fields of communications technology. The emergence of edge computing will be another one for Teceze, in a long line of oriented achievements.

The only way to protect what you’ve worked hard to build is to be vigilant when it comes to cybersecurity. If you’d like to know more about how your business can benefit from managed services, just give us a call, we are here to help.

Edge computing is done at or near the source of the data, instead of relying on the cloud at one of a dozen data centers to do all the work.