Unleashing the power of the telecommunications edge

We’re on the cusp of a new generation. Unlike the one The Who sang about, this one is going to cause a big sensation. It’s the fifth generation of communication. It’s 5G.

The promise of this latest generation of cellular technology holds great potential to advance the way we live and work. However, there’s an even bigger story behind 5G. Imagine a world with the “3 CPs”: perpetual connectivity, pervasive computing, and precision control. A world where everything, everywhere is producing valuable data, communicating with its surroundings, and is efficiently controlled and maintained.

IDC forecasts that more than 150 billion devices will be connected across the globe by 2025, with real-time data representing nearly 30 percent of the Global Datasphere by 2025. Estimated to be 33 zettabytes in 2018, IDC forecasts the Global Datasphere will grow to 175 zettabytes by 2025.

Pent up in all that data is a massive opportunity. But as I have said before, to turn edge data into intelligence and action, we must process so much of it right where it’s created, and frequently take action – right at the edge. Many times it’s too slow, costly, unreliable, or not secure enough to send all the data to a distant cloud or data center.

This applies to communication service providers (CSPs), seeking to deliver new services that tap into this massive growth of real-time data – they too must have the capabilities to process data where and when it is created at the edge. In fact, the edge presents a major bottleneck for CSPs planning to excel in this new world of data-intensive, ultra-low latency services.

The telecommunications industry has been going through a fundamental shift for several years. CSPs are changing their business model from solely providing connectivity, to providing digital services to their customers. To achieve this, telecommunications networks must move from proprietary technology to open, standard-IT infrastructure running virtualized network functions. This affords not only cost savings, but more importantly, the versatility and speed required to meet the ever-changing demands of new digital business models.

CSPs have come a long way in virtualizing their networks, but there remains an inflexible and costly island: the telecommunications edge.

Hence, a next big step in CSPs’ transformation is the proliferation of powerful open standard-IT systems at the edge. Applications such as virtual radio access networks (vRAN) and virtual cable modem termination systems (vCMTS), can be run alongside virtually any related applications that were once run only in a data center.

At this year’s Mobile World Congress (Hall 3, booth 3E11), we demonstrate a new edge platform designed to help CSPs accelerate that journey. The HPE Edgeline EL8000 Converged Edge System is open-standards based and offers enterprise-class remote manageability – all developed to address the inflexibility and limitations of CSPs’ current closed proprietary edge systems. HPE Edgeline EL8000 reduces costs and supports a voluminous open ecosystem for the data-intensive real-time digital services that CSPs must offer. It delivers high performance and ultra-low latency for even the most demanding use cases, such as media streaming, IoT, artificial intelligence, and video analytics. The unique design is compact, rugged, and low energy, ideal for deployments in the most inhospitable places – it’s also equipped with edge-optimized serviceability and remote systems management.

A testament to its compelling value proposition, Samsung and Tech Mahindra – in collaboration with HPE – will leverage the HPE Edgeline EL8000 Converged Edge System to help CSPs accelerate their 5G readiness and ensure a smooth transition from 4G to 5G.

The convergence of communications and standard-IT technology is a prime example of how the edge has to be reinvented to enable operational efficiencies, new customer experiences and business models – very much like what is happening with cars, machines, and manufacturing plants with their OT (operational technologies) converging with open IT edge-to-cloud architectures. This reinvention is truly sensational, redefining every sector of our economies and societies by creating an edge-centric, cloud-enabled and data-driven world.