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