impact on business models, service providers, datacenters ......wireless edge computing . the edge...

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EMERGING AND DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY ANALYSIS

Market Driven Strategic Advisory

5G and Edge Computing

Impact on Business Models, Service Providers, Datacenters,

Applications, Business Users and Consumers

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Highlights and Findings • 5G Influence on Bandwidth and Data Economics: 5G will “reinvent” connectivity as there

will be a very credible alternative to cable and fiber for business customers. 5G will bring about fundamental structural economic changes, such as significantly lower broadband pricing as a whole, and also much greater flexibility for enterprise, industrial, and government market segments in terms of how they connect public to private networks.

• 5G Needs Edge Computing: LTE is improved with edge computing, but 5G absolutely requires it. In fact, without mobile edge computing, 5G would need to rely upon back-haul to centralized cloud resource for storage and computing, diminishing much of the otherwise positive impact of latency reduction enabled by 5G.

• Mobile Edge Computing a Must for Private Wireless Networks: Enterprise and industrial segments will continue to deploy private networks utilizing LTE and WiFi. Many of these networks will evolve to 5G and include edge computing to maximize overall throughput and minimize latency, which will be crucial for certain critical communications solutions such as industrial process automation.

• Combined 5G and Edge Solutions: A variety of enhanced services and new apps will be enabled, many of which will be directly or indirectly involved with smart cities, intelligent buildings, and smart homes and workplaces. Key 5G and MEC supported applications for business will be IoT connectivity, SMB/corporate mobility, and fixed wireless.

• Carrier Network vs. Business On-site Models: Enterprise and industrial customers may choose a combination of communications and computing as a service from carriers or purchase infrastructure that is managed by a third-party entity. In contrast, carriers will own and control 5G and MEC infrastructure for the consumer segment, but dependent upon OTT providers to manage apps and services that market.

• Consumer Services Monetization: There will be minimal direct business to consumer (B2C) offerings from carriers. Instead, carriers will be substantially reliant on third-party app and service developers. Rather than B2C, carriers will provide apps to consumers on a business to business to consumer (B2B2C) basis, as they will rely on OTT players to develop apps and offer services. Examples include Uber (transportation), Sony (gaming), and Netflix (streaming).

• Business Services Monetization: For some applications and use cases, enterprise and industrial customers will require only connectivity and communications with the carrier (e.g., no computing) and may utilize their own computational infrastructure. In these scenarios, the enterprise or industrial customer will manage their own apps, or more likely, hire their own third-party team to manage on their behalf.

• Security and Privacy Concerns: 5G and MEC infrastructure must operate in a manner in which security is ensured and privacy is protected. It is not the 5G network itself that is a security/privacy concern, but rather all of the things that 5G and MEC enabled equipment will facilitate that will amplify issues.





Table of Contents Fifth Generation Wireless

Wireless Edge Computing

Why 5G Needs Edge Computing

5G Edge Computing Challenges and Opportunities

Managing Simultaneous Communications and Computing

Edge Computing Impact on Datacenters

Managing Massive Amounts of Data

Ensuring Security and Preserving Privacy

Emerging 5G and Edge Computing Ecosystem

5G and Edge Computing Use Cases

Summary and Conclusions

Implementation and Operation

Supply Chains and Partnerships

Applications and Services

Market Predictions

Additional 5G and MEC Resources

Multi Access Edge Computing

LTE and 5G Apps and Services

6G Technology

About the Author and Publisher





Fifth Generation Wireless

The fifth generation (5G) of cellular communications will bring about fundamental structural economic changes, such as significantly lower broadband pricing as a whole, and also much greater flexibility for enterprise, industrial, and government market segments in terms of how they connect public to private networks.

Currently, there are well-defined existing networking access points based on availability of fiber and WiFi; 5G breaks this paradigm by providing a “virtual pipe” of bandwidth wherever and whenever needed. This results in both high bandwidth and low latency (e.g., less network throughput delays) for cellular applications and services.

On the supply side, the cost-per-bit will plummet with 5G. This is because 5G is both more efficient than its predecessors and represents more competition to wired broadband solutions such as cable and fiber. Connectivity and transport cost structures will hasten their already downward trajectory as broadband communication options increase substantially.

As with any supply and demand curve, increased supply (e.g., greater bandwidth availability at lower cost) translates into diminished end-user value perception. Most forms of telecommunications are highly elastic in economic terms, meaning that perceived value (and therefore pricing) of core services such as voice, text, and data will plummet due to 5G. With core service value diminishing, content and value-added applications will become most important for the consumer, and a solutions-oriented approach will become critical for enterprise, industrial, and government segments.

On the demand side, consumer data usage will increase dramatically as expectations evolve to include ultra-high definition video, realistic gaming, virtual reality, and other bandwidth-hogging, latency-dependent apps. Business and government users will similarly increase data usage exponentially, but they will demand a solutions-driven approach to solve use-case-specific problems.

Wireless Edge Computing

The edge is a matter of perspective. In physical terms, the edge can be defined relative to location, such as computing occurring far away from centralized computing, hence the terms used in Internet of Things (IoT) of cloud computing (centralized) vs. fog computing (e.g. cloud computing at the edge).

The edge may also be determined based on the client/customer. For example, the consumer may experience the edge in a personal and very close manner, such as using Amazon’s Alexa, which connects to the Cloud via WiFi access and uses the human voice as a command-based user interface.

As with most everything within the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry, there is no shortage of acronyms. Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) is a concept developed by ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) that aims to bring computational power into Mobile RAN (radio access network) to promote virtualization of software at the radio edge.





ETSI later re-termed “MEC” to refer to “Multi-access” Edge Computing to reflect that it may support non-cellular wireless such as WiFi as well as wired options. The intent of MEC is two-fold: (1) bring cloud-computing capabilities and an IT service environment to the edge of the telecom networks and (2) bring virtualized applications much closer to end-users as a means of ensuring network flexibility, economy and scalability.

Why 5G Needs Edge Computing

The entire cellular ecosystem is making big bets that 5G will be a worthwhile investment. Carriers have spent billions on spectrum for 5G and even more will go to new radio access network (RAN) equipment as well as core network infrastructure to support advanced communications capabilities.

Mind Commerce research findings indicate a strong relationship between edge computing and 5G. In fact, if it were not for MEC, 5G would have to rely upon back-haul to centralized cloud resource for storage and computing, diminishing much of the otherwise positive impact of latency reduction enabled by 5G. MEC facilitates optimization of 5G network resources including focusing communications and computational capacity where it is needed the most.

The top portion of the above figure represents business as usual, with all cloud-related da-ta routed through the telecom core to the centralized cloud. The bottom portion of the figure depicts MEC architecture with local processing and routing directly to the Internet. This system only routes data to the centralized cloud on an as-needed basis.

MEC will bring many direct and indirect benefits to CSP networks as well as enhanced and new services. For example, Mind Commerce estimates that MEC is poised to make Content Delivery Networks (CDN) up to 40% more efficient for cellular Communications Service Providers (CSP). Cost savings will be shared between CSPs and CDN providers with the latter improving margins by up to 25%.





A summary of operational benefits of MEC working hand-in-hand with 5G are as follows:

• Improved Overall Throughput: By way of example, testing between Saguna Networks and Vodafone indicated substantially lower wait times and stalls while viewing video.

• Core Congestion Reduction: Related to improved throughput is reduction of core congestion. MEC enables users and devices to store/access much higher volumes of data by way of direct access to the Internet rather than relying upon transport through the core of cellular networks.

• Application Latency Reduction: Mobile edge computing will be particularly important in support of Ultra-Reliable and Low-Latency Communication (URLLC) for latency-sensitive apps and services for various consumer, enterprise, and industrial use cases. The combination of 5G and MEC is expected to reduce network latency significantly, which will enable many previously tethered-only applications and services such as streaming 4K video, real-time remote control, tactile communications, and more.

• Backhaul Reduction: Related to core congestion reduction, backhaul is reduced as processing may be done at the edge rather than back-hauled to more centralized core cloud computing resources. This will be particularly important for 5G, which would otherwise rely upon back-haul to centralized cloud resource for storage and computing, diminishing much of the otherwise positive impact of latency reduction enabled by 5G new radio technology.

• Network Awareness and Context: Placing virtual network functions closer to the point of usage allows carriers to better determine context, leading to operational improvements and better use of localized data.

• Streaming Data and Real-time Analytics: Edge computing facilitates vast amounts of fast-moving data from sensors and devices. For many use cases, data flows constantly from the device or sensor to the network and sometimes back to the device. In some cases, these streams of data are simply stored (for potential later use) and in other cases there is a need for real-time data processing and analytics.

• Network and Application Resiliency: Edge computing networks are distributed and thus more resilient because there are many mini-datacenters rather than a few larger ones.

MEC will be an enabler of 5G apps and services including improved mobile broadband (ultra-fast and high definition video, enhanced web browsing, etc.), Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC) dependent apps (virtual reality, UAV operation, autonomous vehicles, robotics, etc.), and massive expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT).

In terms of IoT, one of the key drivers for the multi access edge computing market is that MEC will facilitate an entirely new class of low-power devices for IoT networks and systems. These devices will rely upon MEC equipment for processing. Stated differently, some IoT devices will be very light-weight computationally speaking, relying upon edge computing nodes for most of their computation needs.





5G and Edge Computing Challenges and Opportunities

Managing Simultaneous Communications and Computing

There are many new challenges for deploying MEC. Perhaps the most daunting up-front challenge will be the need for simultaneous planning for communication and server equipment. With MEC, there is clearly a new computational-communications paradigm in which communications and computing are no longer thought of as separate things – they are planned, engineered, deployed, and operated together.

With this new paradigm there will be a need for more efficient management of real-time data and analytics as vast amounts of data is collected, much of which will require real-time processing. CSPs are not accustomed to planning for remote servers, but MEC needs many remote computing sites and/or datacenters.

The combination of MEC and 5G supports both high throughput and low latency. Some applications, such as wireless cloud-based office apps, require high overall throughput in the range of 100 Mbps to 1Gbps, but can tolerate higher latencies (up to 1 second) than other apps such as real-time gaming.

Highly latency-sensitive apps such as virtual reality and tactile Internet, require extremely low latency, ideally less than 1ms. The autonomous vehicle market is a perfect example of the need for both low latency and high throughput. Other application areas fall in the middle, such as first responder connectivity and other public safety apps.

Another challenge will be managing the great differences that will be found between MEC supported apps in terms of parameters and requirements such as caching, security, and key performance indicators. This is because the mobile edge computing market aligns with vertical markets that have very different service requirements.

For example, the requirement for UAV operation and autonomous vehicles will be very different than enterprise automation or industrial robotics. Because of these differences, virtualization, containerization, and APIs will be very important for mobile edge computing platforms as a means of separating one application/user instance from another.

In addition to providing a more flexible application development and service management environment, carriers will also need to upgrade OSS/BSS frameworks to accommodate more fluid pricing models to support the many different ways in which apps may be monetized. For example, new methods of accounting for computational usage (including data access and processing) will need to be developed and implemented to support various third parties such as OTT service providers.





Edge Computing Impact on Datacenters

There will be many decisions to be made in terms of edge computing platform/server location.

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute “MEC in 5G Networks”, First Edition document published in June 2018 identifies mobile edge computing deployment scenarios among other topics. The document identifies four physical areas for MEC deployment as follows:

1. Co-location at Base Station 2. Co-location at Transmission Node 3. Co-location at Network Aggregation Point 4. Co-location with Core Network Functions

An additional industry group that also has an impact on edge computing is the Central Office Re-architected as a Data Center (CORD) supported by AT&T, China Unicom, NTT Communications, SK Telecom, and Verizon. CORD has identified a few potential points of deployment for mobile edge computing platforms including enterprise sites, hub sites, cloud RAN sites, pre-aggregation sites, IP aggregation sites, and co-located with core network equipment. Among other documents, CORD has issued M-CORD as an Open Reference Solution for 5G Enablement, which they position as an open source reference solution for mobile edge computing deployment alternatives that is built on the pillars of SDN, NFV and cloud technologies. The organization also provides guidance regarding mobile edge computing operations, installation, development, and testing.

It is clear that MEC computing servers and platforms can be deployed in many locations including, but not limited to, an LTE and/or 5G macro base station site, the radio network controller site, a multi-RAT cell aggregation site, or at an aggregation point.

Depending on the vendor, there are many different views. For example, Vapor IO, who recently purchased the edge co-location business from one of its investors, Crown Castle, sees the most distributed approach with MEC at every base station. To get there, the company sees interim steps such as building a nationwide network of edge datacenters throughout major metropolitan areas in the United States. The company will interconnect edge computing sites within a city to form a larger, virtual datacenter the company refers to as Vapor Kinetic Edge that covers an entire metro area.

While this logical extreme may ultimately come to fruition, other companies, such as Saguna Networks, see a large role for enterprise-deployed MEC, particularly in conjunction with private LTE and 5G deployments. Other vendors such as Deutsche Telekom backed MobiledgeX also see a strong mobile edge computing market for enterprise and industrial applications such as smart buildings and smart factories respectively.





In this business owned/controlled edge computing market model, the carriers will minimally provide network as a service (via connectivity and communications services) and potentially a certain degree of computing as a service. However, it is likely that many enterprise and industrial customers may manage their own apps and/or allow access by third parties via edge computing APIs for provisioning, administration, and overall management.

While there is some guidance for edge computing deployment, it will be largely up to datacenter providers (working in conjunction with carriers and enterprise) to determine edge computing infrastructure location. Some vendors believe in a highly distributed edge-computing strategy in which edge compute is found at every cellular base station. Others see less extreme distribution of computing resources.

Managing Massive Amounts of Data

5G networks will generate massive amounts of data. This data can be either processed locally or transported to centralized computing resources. As indicated in the illustration, computing in mobile networks can be viewed as part of a two component system consisting of edge cloud resources and centralized computing. The centralized cloud will continue to store some data and support queries and data analytics.





However, certain data processed at the edge of the network will not be transported to centralized resources. This provides a savings in transport costs as well as reducing the latency involved in decision making (e.g. decisions are made locally at the edge of networks). This architecture also enables process of real-time data for analytics purposes.

Service providers must balance the need to determine what data may be processed at the edge (with potential real-time business implications) versus data that may be simply transmitted to a centralized cloud for storage and post-processing. The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for decision making in data analytics will be crucial for efficient and effective decision making, especially in the area of streaming data and real-time analytics associated with MEC.

In many cases, the data itself, and actionable information will be the product, often delivered in a Data as a Service (DaaS) market model. In fact, leveraging 5G and MEC infrastructure for the DaaS market is one of the biggest long-term opportunities for communication service providers. IoT is a particularly attractive area for DaaS as it is growing nearly three times as fast as non-IoT DaaS, with much of it streaming data.

As 5G and edge computing grow in importance with business customers, one of the key opportunities for DaaS is business data syndication, which is the opportunity for companies of various sizes to syndicate (e.g. share and monetize) their own data. However, they will need to safeguard data security and privacy as well as monitor data ownership and care of custody.

Ensuring Security and Protecting Privacy

5G and MEC infrastructure must operate in a manner in which security is ensured and privacy is protected. It is not the 5G network itself that is a security/privacy concern, but rather all of the things that 5G and MEC enabled equipment will facilitate that will amplify issues.

Whether it is new immersive technologies, or extension of existing apps such as Voice over 5G (Vo5G), security is a common issue. There will also be some completely different new issues arise, however, such as virtual identity theft in virtual reality. In general, identity related data (location, behavior, etc.) will need to be safeguarded. 5G will also enable apps of greater significance and consequence.

Whereas LTE-supported apps such as social media and video viewing are expected to work seamlessly, they are not critical communications. In contrast, 5G and MEC supported URLLC apps such as those found in automated vehicle systems must be ultra-reliable and fault tolerant. Stated differently, hacking into most 4G smartphone apps may cause severe frustration and even privacy breaches, but typically will not put humans or assets at risk of harm. Accordingly, the stakes are much higher with 5G and MEC supported apps and services in terms of the need to ensure security.

In terms of ensuring security and preserving privacy, AI will be a very important tool for cybersecurity as a solution for focusing on behaviors rather than signatures/identifiers of malware, especially for critical communications services as well as IoT networks, systems, devices, and data.





Emerging 5G and Edge Computing Ecosystem

The combination of 5G and MEC will lead to the development of new and much more efficient service creation and operational environments. Over-the-Top (OTT) service providers and legacy carriers alike will become more nimble in terms of implementation and optimization. However, we see the former benefiting more than the latter, as carriers have a long legacy of being good at operating networks but not very innovative when it comes to new apps and services.

Both the carrier-hosted and enterprise/industrial site models will occur in the marketplace, with the former including a more consumer-oriented play for the carrier in which they provide largely network and computing only, relying upon third parties for application, content, and management of both.

Mind Commerce sees an emerging mobile edge computing application marketplace as a natural extension to what has already occurred within the ICT ecosystem. By way of example, leading telecom API market and Communications-enabled app providers like Ribbon Communications, have recently launched an API Marketplace with AT&T and KPN.

This API market is generally speaking communication-enable virtually app with carrier functionality such as text, voice, identity, location, and other capabilities. Mind Commerce also sees this type of marketplace expanding to include mobile edge computing specific capabilities.

One of the key aspects of the evolving mobile edge computing market is that it will be by nature a distributed application/service/content marketplace. Accordingly, application and content developers will need to gain access (directly or indirectly) to thousands of diversely located edge computing platforms for purposes of provisioning, administering, and managing services.

Developers will also need to access both carrier owned/controlled MEC platforms as well as those owned or on the premise of enterprise, industrial, and government customers. In the case of the latter, the business customer will contract with application companies to develop and/or maintain apps for internal business usage (such as industrial automation) as well as for their customers’ usage. In some cases these B2B2C apps will be stand-alone (such as CRM) and in other cases they will involve integration with the business’s own products and services.





5G and Edge Computing Use Cases

The use cases for future 5G applications market solutions are many and varied in terms of type, industry vertical focus, and requirements. It is important to understand that there are fundamentally different types of services supported by 5G and MC, each of which have very unique needs as identified by the following service categories:

• Enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB): Mobile broadband based apps will use MEC for more efficient operation. Localized processing will allow apps such as cloud-based gaming to run more smoothly and efficiently due to localized data caching and access to CDNs rather than routing all data through the network core. This will improve overall throughput, reduce latency, and minimize carrier resources needed to support data-hungry apps.

• Ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC): MEC will be particularly important in support of latency-sensitive apps and services for various consumer, enterprise, and industrial use cases. The combination of 5G and MEC is expected to reduce network latency significantly, which will enable many previously tethered-only applications and services such as VR, UAV control, autonomous vehicles, real-time remote control, haptic or tactile communications, and more.

• Massive machine-type communications (mMTC): MEC will facilitate an entirely new class of low-power devices that rely upon MEC equipment for processing. Stated differently, some IoT devices will be very light-weight computationally speaking, relying upon edge computing nodes for most of their computation needs.

Use cases for Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) include:

• Web browsing • Video • Mobile Office/Productivity (Smart Workplace) • Connected Vehicles • Others (e.g. miscellaneous Smart City apps and services)

The network requirements for eMBB are largely mobility and high bandwidth, but not ultra-reliability. In contrast, URLLC apps such as those that may be found in public safety and commercial critical communications will require ultra-low latency and reliability as well as ample capacity.

Use cases for Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC) include:

• Augmented Reality • Virtual Reality • Telepresence (includes Holographic calling) • Teleoperation/Tele-robotics • Autonomous Vehicles • UAV/Drone Operation] • Public Safety • Smart Buildings





MEC will be particularly important in support of latency-sensitive apps and services for various consumer, enterprise, and industrial use cases.

The combination of 5G and MEC is expected to reduce network latency significantly, which will enable many previously tethered-only applications and services such as VR, UAV control, autonomous vehicles, real-time remote control, cloud-gaming, advanced telepresence, tactile communications, and more.

Apps such as autonomous vehicles, VR, and realistic gaming are more computationally intensive than other applications such as video streaming. These apps will be reliant upon MEC used in conjunction with 5G than most consumer applications such as streaming video.





Use cases for Massive machine-type communications (mMTC) are too many to attempt to list as there are many different industries and scenarios in which IoT is deployed for a variety of reasons including operational efficiency, safety, and overall business effectiveness.

IoT represents a complex system of networks, platforms, interfaces, protocols, devices, and data. IoT devices range from sensors, actuators, gateways, and embedded hardware/software within products and assets. The number and type of IoT devices, as well as the associated use cases for apps and services, grows exponentially within leading industry verticals.

Many mMTC applications will be largely low-bandwidth in nature, but depending on the solution, may require the high reliability of 5G as compared to WiFi. Determining factors in the choice between 5G and WiFi are coverage, capacity, interference, and reliability. Taking these factors into consideration will sometimes cause a business to choose 5G.

An example could be a critical industrial asset that must be monitored with assured periodicity to ensure operational efficiency, asset protection, and safety assurance. In addition, coverage and capacity issues may cause a business with WiFi in place to reconsider if it indeed a less expensive option than replacing with 5G.

Summary and Conclusions

Implementation and Operation

Implementation and operation of MEC has profound implications. For example, there will not be a need to always route completely through the entire switching fabric for Internet transport. In other words, certain content and applications can be consumed locally rather than relying upon back-hauling and/or hair-pinning through a home gateway to the (central) cloud. It is important to recognize that there is a trade-off, however, as overall network latency involved in computing at the edge (e.g. the remainder of the network may be delayed while computing happens at the edge, unless it may occur in parallel processing manner).

Mobile operators will be able to deliver content to end-users much faster with MEC by serving it directly from the RAN. This dramatically improves radio utilization and also provides other efficiencies. One of those efficiencies is Content Delivery Network (CDN) operation. Mind Commerce estimates that MEC is poised to make CDNs up to 40% more efficient for cellular Communications Service Providers (CSP). Cost savings will be shared between CSPs and CDN providers with the latter improving margins by up to 25%.

Mind Commerce sees some major differences in terms of ownership, deployment, and management when comparing consumer apps and services to those for business. For consumer apps and services, we see carriers providing 5G and MEC infrastructure. For this segment, the carrier provides communications and computing infrastructure, but is most likely going to allow OTT providers to manage the application level (e.g. provisioning, administration, customer service, billing, etc.), relegating the CSP to largely data revenue only.





However, enterprise and industrial customers may choose any combination of communications and computing as a service from carriers or purchase infrastructure that is managed by a third-party entity. With the business on site model, business customers may pay carriers for infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) or MEC platform-as-a-service (PaaS).

With either IaaS or PaaS, business customers may be responsible for their own apps and related management or rely on carriers to handle their applications entirely as a managed service. If a business customer chooses to instead maintain their own edge-compute infrastructure, they will simply connect to the carrier for network services, alone, and little or no computing.

Supply Chains and Partnerships

Communication Service Providers (CSP) are not accustomed to planning for remote servers. However, MEC essentially needs many remote datacenters. Mind Commerce predicts that CSPs will need to partner with network integration companies to realize the full vision of MEC. CSPs cannot be bogged down in negotiations, planning, engineering, and deployment of MEC communications/computing platforms every time a new site is acquired.

Carriers will likely outsource at least a portion of MEC platform management functions such as:

• Dynamic provisioning in an on-demand fashion with no advanced reservation required. This provides for improved flexibility in which mobile applications can be implemented and scaled to meet unpredictable user demands. However, it is likely best handled by the entity that has developed and app and/or marketing and managing a service rather than the network provider.

• MEC supports multi-tenancy in which service providers can share the resources and costs to support a variety of applications and large number of users. This provides additional flexibility as multiple services from different providers can be integrated easily through the cloud and the Internet to meet the users’ demands. This is a function that may be best delegated to a datacenter provider acting on behalf of the carrier or business customer.

Edge computing offers application developers and content providers cloud computing capabilities and IT service environments at the edge of the network. Carriers will need to open up platforms for consumer oriented applications, which will be largely fulfilled by OTT service providers.

Applications and Services

The 5G consumer applications market will benefit from much improved general mobile broadband communications for things that consumers do today – mostly video-oriented if one is measuring usage on a data consumption basis. End-users already have high definition video and voice with LTE (e.g. Voice over LTE or VoLTE), but with Voice over 5G (Vo5G) there will be an improved user experience as the auditory component of every application evolves from high-definition to ultra-high definition.





5G and MEC will make IoT scalable. Currently, IoT relies upon many proprietary, non-cellular means for Wide Area Network (WAN) communications. With the introduction of 5G support for “Massive IoT”, M2M networking will able to become as large as it needs to be for a given enterprise, network, system, etc. Stated differently, there will be the ability for many more low-power IoT devices with extreme coverage within a metropolitan area.

5G and MEC together also provide substantial bandwidth where needed as well as significantly lower latency for next generation applications and services such as virtual reality controlled teleoperation and other URLLC dependent apps and services.

Despite the many aforementioned benefits, Mind Commerce does not see 5G as a panacea for legacy communication service providers (CSPs). In fact, 5G and MEC will have some downsides for carrier CSPs as OTT app providers and other third-party CSPs will benefit from lower data costs, fueling innovation for many new data-hungry apps for which carriers only derive data revenue and not application or service revenue.

Market Predictions

In the near term, the 5G and MEC enabled networks are not anticipated to consist of many new consumer apps and services as compared to LTE. Instead, there will be mainly extensions to existing services such as much faster portable hotspots, improved browsing, and video viewing. There will also be some cannibalization of fixed network offerings due to 5G fixed-wireless for business, and to a lesser extent, as a consumer ISP alternative.

Mind Commerce does not have a vision of personal drones following people all the time or people walking around everywhere with VR goggles.

While there is great long-term potential for wide adoption of highly immersive apps (AR, tactile Internet, UAVs, VR, etc.), Mind Commerce does not see massive consumer adoption for several years. This means that carriers must prepare for 5G and MEC supported URLLC apps in a manner in which CSPs rely more on business customers for ROI and focus on supporting OTT provider trials and market testing for the consumer segment.

Longer term, Mind Commerce sees 5G acting as a launch pad for enhanced consumer wireless services such as augmented reality, virtual reality, and cloud gaming.

In the near term, many of the high ROI solutions for 5G and MEC will involve fixed wireless access for enterprise and industrial customers. Although the large North American carriers, including AT&T and Verizon, have made statements about their 5G rollouts and are proceeding with pilot projects in major cities, the first applications are for fixed-wireless access. A wide range of applications based on mobile 5G is likely still several years out.





It is anticipated that 5G and MEC working together will have the biggest impact within the industrial sector as it will support new methods of untethered operation and new technologies, such as teleoperation, which represents the ability to operate equipment or a machine from a distance. A specific form of teleoperation involving remote control of a robot is referred to as tele-robotics. Teleoperation and tele-robotics are both supported by ICT infrastructure including broadband communications, sensors, M2M communications, and various IoT technologies.

There is a rapidly growing trend involving enterprise and industrial segment customers implementing and operating their own private wireless networks. Private wireless deployments will involve LTE and 5G, leveraging both licensed and unlicensed cellular spectrum as well as WiFi and edge computing.

For enterprise and industrial segments, there is the option to utilize edge computing, LTE and 5G infrastructure from incumbent carriers, use business-owned equipment, or a combination of both. Some of private wireless operations will be carrier owned/managed and some owned by the business customer and either managed by the carrier or most likely some other third party that provides orchestration and/or application management.

Some business customers will request edge computing-as-a-service from carriers. These services will include processing, storage, and application administration. Carriers will provide these services for certain enterprise, industrial, and government customers who seek edge compute-as-a-service as an alternative to capital infrastructure expenditure.

Carriers are working diligently to determine how they will work with enterprise and industrial business customers that install private networks. Leading communications service providers are focused on providing MEC as a means of tying together private networks with public cellular infrastructure. This can be a good strategy as carriers struggle to identify their role as private networks continue to grow in popularity with CSP business customers.

Two factors that carriers must consider in their strategies are as follows:

• MEC deployment will foster a new ecosystem that involves provisioning, administration, and support of edge-compute-based apps and services from various third parties, such as OTT service providers. These players will step in to offer highly accessible and flexible infrastructure, incorporating virtualization, programmability, and open (but controlled) access via APIs.

• MEC also supports multi-tenancy, in which service providers can share the resources and costs to support a variety of applications and a large number of users in a virtualized infra-structure. Over time, multiple services from different providers could be integrated through the cloud and the Internet to meet users’ demands. Application and service provisioning and administration may be the responsibility of either the carrier, enterprise, or a third-party service provider, through a combination of MEC-based capabilities shared among all these entities.





While Mind Commerce does not see a big immediate impact for retail-level 5G and MEC supported apps, we do see AR, VR, cloud gaming, personal UAV, connected vehicles, and other consumer enhanced broadband services growing over time in a manner that solidifies cellular service providers within the wireless ecosystem as the go-to data pipe for consumer apps, especially outside the home and on-the-go. However, they will be reliant upon the OTT service providers to develop and maintain apps.

Legacy service providers are not in the best position to support MEC platforms. In terms of network operations, Mind Commerce predicts that CSPs will need to partner with network integration companies to realize the full vision of MEC. CSPs cannot be bogged down in negotiations, planning, engineering, and deployment of MEC communications/computing platforms. We also see CSPs partnering with various datacenter providers to help them with deployment and ongoing operations.

Offering mobile edge computing as a service is a high opportunity area for CSPs and data center providers alike.

For enterprise owned and managed edge computing, there will be an ongoing need for professional services for support of business applications, especially on private wireless networks.

Additional predictions for the 5G and MEC supported market include:

• Initial rollout of 5G for URLLC support will be slow. Initial use cases will be focused on fixed-wireless solutions for enterprise/industrial applications

• Widespread deployment of MEC for minimum capacity mMTC support will be important for CSPs as they prepare for massive LPWAN support of IoT

• Driven by private LTE and 5G networks, the largest industrial vertical for MEC will by manufacturing. For example: Asia PAC to reach $194.4M by 2024, driven by smart factories

• Greater bandwidth, enhanced throughput, and lower latency from 5G and MEC will lead to apps and services of greater consequence such as self-driving cars with very stringent security and privacy requirements





Additional 5G and MEC Resources

Multi Access Edge Computing

The Mind Commerce report, Multi Access Edge Computing Datacenter Market by Infrastructure (Platforms, Hardware, Software, Services, APIs), Equipment Category, Deployment Models, Computing as a Service Offerings, Network Connectivity, Applications, Analytics Types, Market Segment (Consumer, Enterprise, Industrial, Government), Industry Verticals, and Region 2019 – 2024, evaluates the telecom and IT ecosystem in support of MEC including communications and computing infrastructure providers, managed services vendors, carriers and OTT providers.

This edge computing market analysis includes a focus on company strategies and offerings relative to current and anticipated future market needs. The report also provides quantitative analysis of the Mobile Edge Computing market including segmentation by industry vertical, region of the world, application and services. It also provides forecasts for MEC based streaming data and real-time data analytics.

LTE and 5G Apps and Services

The Mind Commerce report, LTE and 5G Applications and Services Market by Service Provider Type (MNO, OTT, End-user), Connection Type, Deployment Type (Public and Private Virtualized, Dedicated, and Hybrid), Use Cases, 5G Service Category (eMBB, mMTC, URLLC), Computing as a Service (Public, Private, Hybrid), Industry Verticals, Region and Country 2019 – 2024, is the most comprehensive research available addressing the LTE and 5G application and service market.

This report evaluates cellular broadband applications and services including revenue and usage (subscribers/users) by LTE, LTE Advanced, LTE Advanced Pro, and 5G. The report also assesses the LTE and 5G applications market in private wireless networks as well as market opportunities for Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) in public and private networks including the market for computing as a service.

6G Technology

Want to learn more about what is beyond 5G? The Mind Commerce report, Sixth Generation Cellular: Looking Beyond 5G to the 6G Technology Market, looks beyond 5G towards 6G communications. Building upon our extensive analysis in LTE, 5G, and computing (core cloud, edge computing, HPC, and quantum), and other related areas such as artificial intelligence and AI support of other technologies. This report is a one of a kind investigation into the upcoming 6G technology market.

The report looks beyond 5G (B5G) as it evaluates R&D efforts, technologies, and anticipated capabilities that both build upon 5G as well as leap far beyond what is currently envisioned with existing solution abilities. The report includes quantitative analysis with 6G technology market sizing for 2025 through 2030.


https://mindcommerce.com/reports/multi-access-edge-computing-market/?ISE




https://mindcommerce.com/reports/5g-applications-market/?ISE




https://mindcommerce.com/reports/6g-technology-market/?ISE

https://mindcommerce.com/reports/6g-technology-market/?ISE




About the Author

This report was written by Gerry Christensen, Founder of Mind Commerce, an ICT and digital technology strategy company that has focused exclusively on Information and Communications Technology for over twenty years. He has covered the mobile edge-computing market since 2015.

His analyst and consulting work in this area has supported vendors, carriers, government, and NGO clients. Mr. Christensen is also an expert in other aspects of telecom network infrastructure, including switching and signaling technologies. As analyst and consultant, he frequently covers many emerging technology topics, including 5G, AI, IoT, and the convergence of AI and IoT (AIoT).

For more information, see: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerrychristensen/

About the Publisher

Mind Commerce is an ICT strategy company that has focused exclusively on Information and Communications Technology for over twenty years. With deep roots within the ICT industry, we are well-connected and often called upon by clients to improve their understanding of current challenges, identify future opportunities, and provide vision for the next 5 to 10 years.

Some of the biggest challenges to the ICT ecosystem include understanding the impact of technologies upon industry verticals, identifying which solutions should be implemented, how and why. Our reports, data, and insights provide a great depth of knowledge into new and disintermediating technologies,

evolving business models, transforming market needs and emerging opportunities.

The Mind Commerce ICT consulting practice covers important topics with a concentrated focus on key emerging and highly disruptive technology areas including: AI, Broadband, Cloud Computing, Data Analytics, Edge Computing, Immersive Technologies (Augmented and Virtual Reality),

Industrial Automation, IoT, and Robotics.

For more information, see: https://mindcommerce.com/


https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerrychristensen/





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impact on business models, service providers, datacenters ......wireless edge computing . the edge...

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