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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
will be critical elements to enabling
edge computing. But latency is
also determined by the physical
distance between a mobile device
and the network resources to which
it’s connected.
For example, say you want to
run a virtual reality experience
in the cloud. And the data center
powering that experience is
hundreds of miles away from you
and your VR glasses. As a result,
every time you turn your head,
there’s a good chance there will
be a noticeable delay between
when you turn and when the image
moves to follow your gaze. That
lag is an unavoidable byproduct of
the time it takes that data to cross
those large physical distances.
So we’re shrinking the distance.
Instead of sending those commands
hundreds of miles to a handful of
data centers scattered around the
country, we’ll send them to the
tens of thousands of central offices,
macro towers, and small cells that
are generally never farther than a
few miles from our customers.
If the data centers are the “core”
of the cloud, these towers, central
offices, and small cells are at the
“edge” of the cloud. Intelligence is
no longer confined to the core. The
cloud comes to you.
We’ll outfit those facilities with high-
end graphics processing chips and
other general purpose computers.
We’ll coordinate and manage those
systems with our virtualized and
software-defined network.
Eventually, we could embed these
systems in everyday items like traffic
lights and other infrastructure.
That could enable self-driving cars
to talk to their surroundings or alert
fire and medical services almost
instantly when there’s a problem.
You could get amazing virtual reality
and augmented reality images
delivered instantaneously to the
super-slim device in your pocket.
Doctors would be able to view and
share and adjust complex medical
images without having to invest in
expensive imaging systems.
Edge computing could also spark
the next generation of robotic
manufacturing. The 5G service on
the horizon could play a vital role in
what’s called "Industry 4.0 - Digital
Manufacturing". The anticipated
low-latency wireless connections
could eliminate the traditional wired
connections to robotic assemblers.
Manufacturers will be able to quickly
retool their operations as robots
in the factory will be connected
wirelessly, eliminating the need for
time-consuming rewiring. Products
can get to market faster.
We’re already deploying EC-
capable services to our enterprise
customers today through our AT&T
FlexWareSM service. Customers
can currently manage powerful
network services through a
standard tablet device. We expect
to see more applications for EC in
areas like public safety that will be
enabled by the FirstNet wireless
broadband network.
We’re committed to deploying
mobile 5G as soon as possible
and we’re committed to edge
computing. As we roll EC out over
the next few years, dense urban
areas will be our first targets, and
we’ll expand from those over time.
Our network virtualization initiative
will go hand in hand with our
mobile edge computing program.
Our goal is to virtualize 75% of
our network functions by 2020. We
aim to cross the halfway mark this
year, reaching 55%. As we’ve said
before, we think 5G and software
defined networking will be deeply
intertwined technologies. We don’t
think you can claim to be preparing
for 5G and EC if you’re not investing
in SDN.
We’re all in. Now.
Our AT&T Labs and AT&T Foundry
innovation centers are playing a key
role in designing and testing edge
computing. In February, the AT&T
Foundry in Palo Alto released a white
paper discussing the computing
and networking challenges around
AR/VR. In the coming weeks, our
second white paper will discuss
how we can apply edge computing
to enable mobile augmented and
virtual reality technology in the
ecosystem.
There’s no time to lose. We think
edge computing will drive a wave
of innovation unlike anything seen
since the dawn of the internet itself.
Stay tuned.
Innovation & Start-Up
Special Edition
New-Tech Magazine Europe l 65