New-TechEurope Magazine | November 2017 | Digital Edition

Sensors Special Edition

The Cloud Comes to You: AT&T to Power Self-Driving Cars, AR/VR and other Future 5G Applications Through Edge Computing AT & T

Powerful Compute Capabilities will Drive Down Latency for Next- Gen Applications AT&T* is reinventing the cloud to boost the potential of self-driving cars, augmented reality and virtual reality, robotic manufacturing, and more. We’re embracing a model called edge computing (EC) to move the data crunching from the device to the cloud. Driving it will be the single-digit millisecond latency that only tomorrow’s 5G can deliver. And powering it all will be our software- defined network, the most advanced of its kind in the networking industry. Here’s the challenge: Next-gen applications like autonomous cars and augmented reality/ virtual reality (AR/VR) will demand massive amounts of near-real time computation. For example, according to some

third-party estimates, self-driving cars will generate as much as 3.6 terabytes of data per hour, due to the clusters of cameras and other sensors required to enable their digital vision. Some functions, such as braking, turning and acceleration will likely always be managed by the computer systems in the cars themselves. But what if we could offload to the cloud some of the secondary systems? These include things like updating and accessing the detailed maps these cars will use to navigate. Or consider AR/VR. The industry is moving to a model where those applications will be delivered through your smartphone. But creating entirely virtual worlds or overlaying digital images and graphics on top of the real world in a convincing way also requires a lot of processing power. Even when

phones can deliver that horsepower, the tradeoff is extremely short battery life. Edge computing addresses those obstacles by moving the computation into the cloud in a way that feels seamless. It’s like having a wireless supercomputer follow you wherever you go. “Edge computing fulfills the promise of the cloud to transcend the physical constraints of our mobile devices,” said Andre Fuetsch, president of AT&T Labs and chief technology officer. “The capabilities of tomorrow’s 5G are the missing link that will make edge computing possible. And few companies have the sheer number of physical locations that AT&T has that are needed to solve the latency dilemma.” The faster speeds and particularly the lower latency expected with 5G

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