Edge computing – introduction in phases

How telecom can architect the next cloud era

Edge computing - a must for 5G success

5G and edge computing are opening a world of new revenue opportunities across manufacturing, transport, gaming and more. How can communications service providers gain an edge ahead of competitors? Find out everything you need to know below.

Edge computing

What is edge computing?

Edge computing in telecom, often referred to as Mobile Edge Computing, MEC, or Multi-Access Edge Computing, provides execution resources (compute and storage) for applications with networking close to the end users, typically within or at the boundary of operator networks.

Edge computing can also be placed at enterprise premises, for example inside factory buildings, in homes and vehicles, including trains, planes and private cars. The edge infrastructure can be managed or hosted by communication service providers or other types of service providers. Several use cases require various applications to deployed at different sites. In such scenarios a distributed cloud is useful which can be seen as an execution environment for applications over multiple sites, including connectivity managed as one solution.

The main benefits edge solutions provide include low latency, high bandwidth, device processing and data offload as well as trusted computing and storage.

Service providers are in a great position to capture the edge opportunity

Today’s service providers are ideally positioned to deliver intelligent traffic routing from the mobile network to the optimal location of the enterprise application, in addition to having people on the ground and expert knowledge of network topology, network efficiency, device management and more.

The evolution to cloud native network functions and distributed cloud computing enables service providers to move beyond traditional connectivity-service models and opens new doors to adjacent industries.

How to effectively deploy edge computing

There are five interdependent key areas that have been identified by the standards, CSPs and analysists to be the most significant methods of defining and deploying an edge computing solution.

Infrastructure

A footprint-flexible, efficient, automated infrastructure provides high reliability. For this to happen, the edge infrastructure needs to be deployed either on-premise at enterprises or in the CSP network, hosting both telco workloads and 3rd party/over the top applications with a limited local management system.

Orchestration

Orchestration should provide smart 3rd party/over the top workload placement and topology discovery, controlling which sites the 3rd party/over the top applications are deployed on, and how they’re configured.

Exposure

To simplify the application developers’ interaction with the telecom network, the exposure solution should expose the APIs for the edge, as well as at the edge for telco applications, for consumption by 3rd party/over the top applications. By exposing information like user equipment and device location, use cases can be improved.

Traffic routing

Routing data to the nearest edge location where the application is hosted helps meet the demand of the application – delivering a better customer experience. This process should be a simplified mechanism, such as distributed anchor or multiple sessions, aligned with standardized approach.

User plane

To enable termination at distributed sites, the user plane is critical. Through the deployment of a 3GPP-compliant, low footprint Packet Core user plane functions, including local LCM support, the solution becomes easy to install and manage.

01 Today

Focus on dedicated deployments on-premise
Explore on-network deployments at Packet Core sites
Integrate service orchestration with 5G Core
Establish partnerships with cloud providers

Dedicated networks | 5G Core

02 Tomorrow

Provide end-to-end service with defined service level agreements, in a self-service, automated way
Enable applications to interact with the network in advanced ways via orchestration and network exposure and easy to consume APIs

Service orchestration | Network slicing

03 Future

Deep integration of compute in the network, blurring the line between the device, the edge of the network and the cloud
A single unified, integrated execution environment for distributed applications, including both network functions and third-party applications.

Edge computing research

5G Things CTO Focus Sessions

The CTO Focus Sessions are fireside chats on the potential of Edge and 5G. The sessions are hosted by Ericsson’s CTO Erik Ekudden and include key players of the 5G ecosystem.

Watch the sessions

Edge and 5G — a platform for innovation

Listen to Erik Ekudden CTO, Ericsson and Tomas Kurian CEO, Google Cloud discussing the new 5G ecosystem consisting of service providers, cloud players and Ericsson catering for an open programing model for application developers to create value.

Edge computing as a vehicle for growth

Listen to Carlos Bravo, Director Cloud Strategy Execution, Ericsson how the edge opportunity should be seen in the larger context of the enterprise opportunity, where edge computing will be an enabler for a broad range of use cases.

CSP network edge meets enterprise edge

Listen to Lars Mårtensson, Vice President and Head of Solution Area Cloud & NFVi, Head of Ericsson Silicon Valley, Ericsson and Amir Amir Rao, Head of solution portfolio & technology alliances for the telecommunications vertical globally, Amazon Web Services (AWS) discussing enterprise values that can be created when 5G network edge and enterprise edge are seamlessly integrated. Who contributes with what to make it happen? What is required to make it scale? Find out in this video.

Scaling the edge: 5G and edge computing

5G and edge computing are opening a world of new opportunities across manufacturing, transport, gaming and more. What are some of the real-world examples, their challenges and how did others overcome those? What does it mean to build an edge? Where will the edge be and how will the sweet spot evolve? Who will be the winner in edge opportunity?

Communication Service Providers (CSP) are looking for new revenue sources to grow their businesses, especially in the enterprise area which will be increasingly important in the future. With the introduction of 5G and edge computing, they are now in a better position to provide new offerings.

The edge computing opportunity should be seen in a larger context of the enterprise opportunity, where edge computing will be an enabler for many broader use cases, for example within the Internet of Things (IoT) and potentially bundled with other enterprise offerings such as 5G private networks.

Read our new white paper that describes edge computing from a CSP perspective, - how a solution is built up, the key industry challenges and how CSPs can choose different roles and deployment strategies when addressing opportunities.

Depending on the market position you have and type of use case provided, this WP gives guidance on how to choose an optimal model or a combination of models that suit your needs.

Read the whitepaper

The next era of 5G and cloud

In this episode of the Ericsson News Podcast, Ericsson’s Chief Technology Officer, Erik Ekudden, talks about how 5G and cloud platforms are creating a new innovation ecosystem.

Listen to the podcast

Blog posts

News

White papers & reports

The network compute fabric – advancing digital transformation with ever-present service continuity

Enabling time-critical applications over 5G with rate adaptation

Edge computing and 5G

pdf

The future of cloud computing

Mobile cloud gaming – an evolving business opportunity

Edge computing and deployment strategies for communication service providers

Creating the next-generation edge-cloud ecosystem

Local Packet Gateway

Embrace the edge opportunity in virtual and hybrid private 5G networks. Learn about our optimized dual-mode user plane footprint, the pre-integrated solution and secure fast time-to-service with lifecycle management optimized for the edge.

Edge Exposure Server

Ericsson Edge Exposure Server provides simplified and feature enrichments APIs for edge applications, such as user equipment information API, network QoS API and location API. And to reduce complexity for developers and needed system integration when deploying new services, harmonized service APIs addition to standard APIs are provided.

Explore the benefits and offerings of NFVI with Ericsson

Cloud Infrastructure

Ultimately, everyone needs cloud infrastructure, and with 5G the need accelerates. To support service providers’ cloud infrastructure transformation, we have built in experience and competence into our solution.

Service orchestration

Open for enterprise service innovation: unleash the power of application ecosystems through orchestration and exposure.

Get to the core of 5G network with Ericsson.

5G Core

Ericsson’s dual-mode 5G Core combines EPC and 5GC network functions into a common cloud native platform for efficient TCO and smooth migration to 5G.

Cloud RAN by Ericsson

Cloud RAN will enable CSPs to add greater flexibility and versatility to their networks. It is a cloud-native software solution, that will handle compute functionality in radio access networks.

Network compute fabric

The network compute fabric ensures we have a flexible and programmable execution environment for data-intensive and latency-sensitive industrial use cases. Learn more about how we work with network compute fabric in Ericsson Research.

Edge Research