5G brings edge cloud services to the forefront

Among the many business opportunities created by 5G, edge computing can be said to be an infrastructure that extends the reach of cloud computing to users' doorsteps.

Therefore, the global competition for 5G in the field of cloud computing has been extended to edge cloud services.

In 2020, different cloud service providers announced the launch of edge cloud computing services based on 5G networks, creating conditions for users to develop and deploy applications with high transmission speed and low latency.

The combination of mobile edge computing MEC and 5G not only drives various industries to accelerate business model innovation and promotes the innovation of edge cloud computing application scenarios, but also forces the further improvement of 5G network deployment and cloud computing edge computing power.

1. What can edge cloud services do?

On the eve of May Day this year, China Unicom's first large-scale commercial mobile edge computing network was officially launched, and China Unicom's MEC operation center was established in Guangdong. This is the country's first 5G+edge computing commercial network.

On May 13, South Korea's SK Telecom and Amazon's cloud service AWS launched what is known as the world's first edge cloud service based on 5G mobile networks.

On August 13, AWS announced the launch of AWS Wavelength, a low-latency edge cloud service on the 5G network of US telecom operator Verizon, allowing developers to build ultra-low latency applications for mobile devices and users in Boston and the San Francisco Bay Area.

So, what can 5G edge cloud services do?

In the United States, with AWS 5G Edge Cloud Service, customers can use their existing AWS APIs, tools, and capabilities to deploy applications that require ultra-low latency at the edge of the 5G network while seamlessly connecting back to the rest of their applications and all cloud services running in the AWS region.

By embedding AWS computing and storage services at the edge of 5G networks, AWS Wavelength enables developers to provide services for edge computing application scenarios that require ultra-low latency, such as machine learning, IoT, video, and gaming.

Developers who want to deploy applications to the 5G edge can simply extend their Amazon VPC to a Wavelength zone and start running a variety of AWS services.

AWS is also working with leading telecom operators such as Vodafone, SK Telecom, and KDDI to launch Wavelength zones in Europe, South Korea, and Japan.

In South Korea, SK Telecom plans to build a 5G edge cloud computing ecosystem based on 5G MEC technology, combined with AWS's "AWS Wavelength" and other technologies and public cloud services. SK Telecom plans to build MEC infrastructure in 12 5G service concentrated areas in South Korea, providing shared edge cloud services that can be used by multiple enterprises at the same time and on-site edge cloud services tailored for enterprises.

In China, based on the first MEC large-scale commercial network, Guangdong Unicom has joined hands with dozens of leading companies such as Gree, Tencent, and Country Garden to carry out the commercial practice of mobile edge computing, and has accumulated a number of industry-leading products and solutions such as AR (augmented virtual reality) inspection, intelligent portrait recognition, AGV unmanned vehicles, and robot logistics.

What experience will 5G+edge computing bring?

It is reported that the mobile edge computing commercial base currently built in Guangdong is the world's largest mobile edge computing commercial base. The project will pave the way for the development of 5G cloud games, VR live broadcasts, 8K ultra-high-definition video and other businesses.

It was revealed that China Unicom has carried out edge cloud cooperation with more than 400 customers and partners, covering areas such as "smart manufacturing", "smart medical care", "smart transportation", and "smart parks".

Sony is using AWS Wavelength to enable consumers to watch live news, sports, and entertainment more smoothly. AWS Wavelength and 5G networks provide Sony with ultra-low latency to meet the needs of real-time HD video, high-fidelity audio, and embedding interactive experiences into real-time video.

LG Electronics is experimenting with the next generation of mobile connected cars in AWS Wavelength zones at the edge of Verizon’s 5G network. One component is LG’s Authentication as a Service (LG AaaS), which improves driving safety by sharing security information between vehicles, mobile devices, and transportation infrastructure.

2. Why develop 5G edge cloud services?

More and more applications such as smart manufacturing, machine learning reasoning, autonomous driving, live streaming, IoT, and video games want to achieve very low latency across mobile network transmissions. At the same time, these applications need to access computing and storage resources, just like many other current applications use the cloud.

However, using traditional mobile architecture to access the cloud requires multiple network jumps, such as from the device to the mobile communication base station, to the metropolitan aggregation point, to the regional aggregation point, to the Internet, to the cloud, and when returning to the device, it also has to go through all these jump points. This will generate tens of milliseconds (sometimes seconds) of delay.

Although 5G networks are 10 times faster than 4G, to fully utilize 5G's low latency, the number of network hops also needs to be reduced.

For this purpose, edge cloud services were born.

Take AWS's edge cloud service Wavelength as an example. Wavelength solves these problems by bringing AWS services to the edge of the 5G network, minimizing the latency from connecting from mobile devices to applications.

With Wavelength, AWS developers can deploy their applications to Wavelength Zones — AWS infrastructure that deploys AWS compute and storage services in telecommunications operator data centers at the edge of 5G networks.

Application traffic only needs to be transmitted from the device to a mobile communication base station and then to the Wavelength zone running at the metropolitan aggregation point, eliminating the latency caused by multiple hops between regional aggregation points and on the Internet, enabling customers to make full use of the 5G network.

Of course, edge cloud services will also provide a consistent developer experience across multiple 5G networks around the world, allowing developers to use familiar services and tools to build and deploy a new generation of ultra-low latency applications across different telecom operators.

3.5G+edge computing is the basis of edge cloud services

An autonomous vehicle can generate 1GB of data per second, which needs to be processed in real time and take corrective actions.

If all data is transmitted to the cloud for processing, the response time will become very long, and supporting many cars working simultaneously in a certain area will also be a huge challenge for the current network bandwidth and reliability.

With the advent of the Internet of Everything era, the amount of data generated by network edge devices has grown rapidly, bringing higher data transmission bandwidth requirements. At the same time, new applications have also put forward higher requirements for the real-time performance of data processing and data storage. Traditional cloud computing models cannot meet the existing performance requirements, so edge computing came into being.

Edge computing is to process and analyze data at the edge of the network. Edge computing transfers data processing, application running, and even the implementation of some functional services from the cloud center server to the nodes at the edge of the network, thereby speeding up data processing, reducing latency, and improving customer experience.

There are three objective reasons for the emergence of edge computing:

First, network bandwidth and computing throughput have become performance bottlenecks for cloud computing, and user experience is often inversely proportional to response time. The 5G era places higher demands on the real-time nature of data, and some computing capabilities must be localized.

Second, the data volume has surged in the era of the Internet of Things, which has put forward higher requirements for data security. If computing is done on edge nodes, the response time will be greatly shortened and the network load will be reduced. In addition, some data is not suitable for the cloud, and keeping it on the terminal can ensure privacy and security.

Third, terminal devices generate a large amount of "small data" and there is a need for real-time processing. Edge computing can serve as a synergy and supplement to cloud computing, and the two are not substitutes. Under the synergy of edge and cloud, it is expected that the demand on the edge side will bring a huge increase in the server market.

In the 5G era, edge computing will be the common model for building 5G network edge clouds.

5G empowers edge cloud services, opening the door to low-latency applications

Google's cloud gaming platform, called "Stadia", is a gaming platform that is completely based on the cloud. Through high-speed networks, the game streaming images that players can interact with are transmitted back to the local area, and the user's operations will also be transmitted back to the cloud in real time.

However, the quality of the transmission experience is related to the network environment. With 5G network and edge cloud services, this 5G cloud game will avoid operation delays, screen tearing and other situations.

5G and edge computing have set off a wave of industrialization. Various industries and commercial organizations are actively initiating and accelerating the research, standards and industrialization activities of edge computing. The application scenarios are constantly increasing, such as autonomous driving, intelligent security front-end, industrial-grade low-latency applications, VR/AR real-time battle games, telemedicine, and other applications that require high speed and low latency.

According to Gartner's technology maturity curve, edge computing was in the rising stage after innovation triggering in 2017, and edge analysis was in the rising stage by 2019. Therefore, we can see the development potential of 5G+edge computing.

China's leading position in 5G and the Internet of Things has created a good industrial environment for the development of the edge computing industry. Operators and cloud service providers at the core of this industry will have great potential.