By 2035, 5G will support the production of up to £9.3 trillion worth of goods and services according to Qualcomm. Andreas Sila, Market Manager Data Centre at HUBER+SUHNER, said Communication Service Providers must invest in their 5G infrastructure to deliver a faster, more reliable network.
Unprecedented levels of productivity, cost savings and new experiences are the promises of 5G that have been long anticipated to revolutionise the way people, businesses and our modern economy thrives. New network use cases such as connected cars, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and the explosion of billions of Internet of Things (IoT) devices are building an ecosystem of entirely new possibilities with the support of 5G. By 2035, 5G will support the production of up to £9.3 trillion worth of goods and services according to Qualcomm. As Communication Service Providers (CSPs) grow their revenue streams through 5G, they could address US$700 billion of 5G-enabled, business-to-business value by 2030 according to Ericsson. To achieve this, CSPs must invest in their 5G infrastructure to deliver a faster, more reliable network that provides lower latency 5G connectivity.
The 5G promise
Currently, networks face a multitude of challenges as the potential for 5G continues to expand with more new use cases, applications and devices evolving as 5G is realised. With the first 5G networks already being deployed, there is close attention on the technologies and its capabilities to deliver high performing 5G connectivity to increasing numbers of applications.
Increased reliability, faster speeds and lower latency are the 5G performance promises which must be delivered to enable connected cars and IoT devices to perform. This cannot be made possible without a network infrastructure which can handle the increasing pressure of more devices and more data – without compromising on availability, speed and capacity.
As 5G infrastructure is deployed and end-users demand more connectivity there is the challenge to manage increasing demands for data. Integral to this infrastructure are more than 7,500 data centres worldwide which process more than 1.7 megabytes of new data every second. With volumes of data constantly increasing, there is more demand on 5G networks to deliver high-speed at low latency than ever before. With critical applications relying on this performance such as connected cars and healthcare applications, the consequences of latency and slow connectivity are high.
Step closer to 5G
To sustain growing 5G demand, various players in the industry like network operators, content providers and industrial verticals are investing in the infrastructure to support the demands of 5G applications which deliver low latency and reliable connectivity. In order to achieve this, they are investigating into deploying Edge Data Centres (EDCs) to process data closer to the generation and consumption of data.
EDCs form part of the critical infrastructure behind 5G which enables applications such as Industrial IoT or Augmented and Virtual Reality, all of which require real-time network response. EDCs tend to be smaller than normal data centres which means they can be deployed close to the end-user and can be installed in a small shelter or a container tailored to remote locations to only name a few options. By using EDCs, networks can provide local services to help redirect traffic away from the carrier metro networks to local networks, making better use of scarce fibre infrastructure in the metro, regional and long-haul networks. By using this approach, networks can manage significant demands of bandwidth with low latency with greater reliability. Edge Data Centres will be the key to enabling new next-generation applications such as connected cars and virtual reality partially driven by 5G deployments
Preparing 5G performance
In order to adapt to the increasing volumes of data, EDCs must also consider how they will grow and evolve with the needs of the network. To support various end uses and 5G applications, EDCs can be tailored to support unique requirements based on the location, bandwidth demands, latency requirements and the environment in which they are in. They can be of various sizes and can be designed to suit harsh conditions and various temperatures in different environments such as remote areas or even conflict zones. Sufficient power, effective monitoring and cooling features are integral to its performance to support the growth and scale of 5G deployments.
Available in different sizes and forms such as boxes and containers, EDCs can be integrated and placed in various places such as next to cell towers which provides a direct gateway for businesses to rent local processing power and storage for increased performance such as lower latency and higher availability of required services.
Without an effective design, downtime of a data centre can be costly to operators, as well as posing potentially critical implications to the end-user applications of the involved business it serves. For example, mining companies, factory automation environments and communication at an airport. Therefore, it is imperative that EDCs are designed with resilience and efficiency in mind to support the high demanding environment it serves.
Reaching 5G potential
Currently, the industry is in its early stages of adoption of deploying Edge Data Centres. However, interest in Edge Computing is growing rapidly as businesses slowly start to realise the potential of Edge Computing. HUBER+SUHNER is seeing increasing numbers of requests to support the development of EDCs with effective fibre management solutions between the different active equipment and optical switching to allow for remote reconfiguration of the optical layer. This provides redundancy for the fibre network and can be used to remotely commission new services. A third consideration is the question of how to get large chunks of bandwidth to the EDC at an affordable price. For this, either a rugged WDM solution for multiple 10G or a simple 100G service will usually be enough for an EDC. Understanding the environment, the use cases and the bandwidth demands are key elements which HUBER+SUHNER considers to support the implementation of EDCs. Each EDC is created to be robust and resilient in all environments and should be remotely reconfigured for seamless connectivity.
With the future set to see even more EDCs designed and deployed, people will experience the full possibilities of 5G as the industry invests in the infrastructure to deliver on the full potential of 5G. Many critical applications will rely on the performance, scalability and reliability of EDCs such as autonomous cars and healthcare systems or completely digitalised factories which is why it is vital to invest in high-quality EDCs for today and beyond.
