Representative End User Clients
Representative Automation Clients
Representative Software Clients
AT&T is looking to reinvent the cloud to boost the potential of self-driving cars, augmented and virtual reality, robotic manufacturing, and more. The company is now embracing edge computing to move data crunching from the device to the cloud. Driving it will be single-digit millisecond latency that only tomorrow’s 5G can deliver. AT&T is further pushing their software-defined network (SDN) to power 5G installations.
Next-gen applications like autonomous cars and augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) will demand massive amounts of near-real time computation. For example, self-driving cars could generate as much as 3.6 terabytes of data per hour from their clusters of cameras and other sensors. But what if some of the secondary systems were offloaded to the cloud? These include things like updating and accessing detailed maps these cars will use to navigate.
Or consider AR/VR. The industry is moving to a model where those applications will come through your smartphone. But creating entirely virtual worlds or overlaying digital images and graphics on top of the real world in a convincing way also requires a lot of processing power. Even when phones can deliver that horsepower, the tradeoff is extremely short battery life.
AT&T sees edge computing as fulfilling the promise of the cloud to transcend the physical constraints of mobile devices. In the company’s view, the capabilities of tomorrow’s 5G are the missing link that will make edge computing possible.
The faster speeds and lower latency expected with 5G will be key elements to enabling edge computing. But latency is also determined by the physical distance between a mobile device and its network resources. Edge computing addresses those obstacles by moving the computation into the cloud in a way that feels seamless. It’s like having a wireless supercomputer follow you wherever you go.
Say you want to run a VR experience in the cloud. And the data center powering that experience is hundreds of miles away from you and your VR glasses. Every time you turn your head, there’s a good chance there will be a noticeable delay between when you turn and the image follows. That lag is unavoidable because of the time it takes the data to cross large physical distances.
So the company is looking to shrink that problematic distance. Instead of sending commands hundreds of miles to a handful of data centers scattered around the country, they are looking to send them to the tens of thousands of central offices, macro towers, and small cells usually never farther than a few miles from customer locations. If the data centers are the “core” of the cloud, these towers, central offices, and small cells are viewed as the “edge” of the cloud. Intelligence is no longer confined to the core.
AT&T states that it is committed to deploying mobile 5G as soon as possible, and they’re committed to edge computing. As AT&T rolls edge computing out over the next few years, dense urban areas will be their first targets. They are looking to someday embed these systems in everyday items like traffic lights and other infrastructure. That could enable self-driving cars to talk to their surroundings or alert fire and medical services almost instantly when there’s a problem, or instantly deliver VR and AR.
AT&T also sees edge computing sparking the next generation of robotic manufacturing. The 5G service on the horizon could play a vital role in Industry 4.0 or Digital Manufacturing. The anticipated low-latency wireless connections could eliminate the traditional wired connections to robotic assemblers. Updates could come quicker and products can get to market faster.
AT&T’s network virtualization initiative is intended to go hand in hand with their mobile edge computing program. Their goal is to virtualize 75% of their network functions by 2020, with this year reaching 55%. The company strongly believes 5G and SDN will be deeply intertwined technologies, including the contention that you can’t claim to be preparing for 5G and edge computing if you’re not investing in SDN.
Keywords: The Cloud, Virtual Reality, Robotic Manufacturing, Edge Computing (EC), ARC Advisory Group.