Edge Network Speed ​​Requirements

In the previous article, we mentioned how to survive in the edge network era and discussed the development trend of edge network intelligence. As the latest wireless network technologies such as 5G further improve communication capacity, this new infrastructure will strongly promote the development of innovative applications. Most of these applications use high-frequency activity models, such as video or sensors, whose activities are usually initiated by the devices themselves and generate a large amount of data moving across the network. According to Cisco's latest Visual Networking Index (VNI), global mobile data traffic will increase sixfold from 2017 to 2022, or an annual growth rate of 42%1, and network performance upgrades have become a general trend.

Wireless Offloading

How do networks with dense wireless connections deal with the huge challenges of bandwidth and connectivity? One solution is wireless offload. Whether it is a large retail store with 1,000 customers, a stadium with a capacity of 60,000 seats, or a conference center with 200,000 attendees, the amount of data to be transmitted is huge. The cost of transmitting data wirelessly has reached a critical point in terms of capacity, which has driven the development of transmission requirements through wired networks. This trend also puts higher requirements on the performance of edge networks to meet user experience needs for high-performance connections and low-latency response times.

New performance requirements

Advanced wireless access technologies have accelerated the deployment of 5G and Wi-Fi 6, including the adoption of MIMO and higher spectrum technologies. However, the emergence of new devices and applications will soon consume the capacity provided. In fact, providing large bandwidth access is a major factor in defining multi-gigabit Ethernet. This new performance demand will affect all network layers, prompting uplinks to increase port speeds to handle the increased access bandwidth. In addition, the capacity of stacking links will also increase, promoting efficient port deployment and helping to cope with the growth of additional clients.

Increased network capacity is driving the growth of high-bandwidth applications, supporting emerging real-time applications and the expansion of concurrently active devices on the network. Ironically, however, these trends and future innovations will continue to place higher demands on network performance.

Performance is the second in a series discussing the essential technologies needed for the evolving borderless campus as mobile and cloud applications proliferate and network functions move from the core to the edge. The challenges and insights of telemetry are explored in How to Survive the Next Edge Network Era.