Edge Intelligence and 5G

- 5G Will Drive Edge Intelligence

Edge intelligence is the ability of an edge deployment to adapt, deploy, and perform business processes to deliver desired outcomes. 5G will transform how businesses operate and deliver new, better outcomes by deploying new business intelligence at the edge. 

In the age of innovation, as data continues to grow, there’s a real need for data storage and data computation to be located on the device. Privacy, security, and speed are the biggest reasons that the distributed Edge model can work better in certain use-cases.

The 5G-driven IoT transformation will bring three key types of edge intelligence: 

• Improved Network Reliability and Durability Will Drive Closed-loop Applications. 
• My Own Private Fog! Security-enabling Edge Deployment.
• Edge Virtualization Will Enable Massive Retrofitting of Installed Infrastructure.

- Improved Network Reliability and Durability Will Drive Closed-loop Applications

The dense network node deployment will create a more redundant, reliable and deterministic network, as shorter transmission distances and higher bandwidth reduce latency. In addition to the IoT stack compute levels (cloud, aggregation edge, and the physical edge), 5G will deploy a new layer of edge compute, the multi-access edge compute (MEC) layer, which will reduce transmission times required to get to this cloud-like computing capacity needed for more complex, big data-driven applications. 

5G will achieve low latency by providing shorter time slots at the physical radio layer, higher frequencies such as mmWave, and moving intelligence from centralized network cores to de-centralized network cores closer to the edge. The combination of lower latency and more reliable networking is going to enable closing-the-loop on business- and mission-critical applications.

Moreover, 5G will provide network and computing performance previously only available in private or proprietary wired systems, like those used in factory automation. 5G edge automation will be one of the first ways 5G will drive edge intelligence. 

- My Own Private Fog! Security-enabling Edge Deployment

Many enterprises, particularly those in industrial controls and mission-critical market segments, have been slow to adopt public cloud compute and public networks due to low confidence in both reliability and security. 5G will address these concerns, anticipated in 3GPP Release 16, by extending the private LTE network opportunities introduced in 3GPP Release 15. 

Private networks based on a shared spectrum enable customers to become independent of mobile network operators. Continuous operations and automation will no longer be subject to data plan costs and overages, sensitive data will not have to traverse public infrastructure, and the network will be dedicated, not shared with other tenants. Combine this network performance with the MEC layer that comes with 5G installation, and industrial operation leaders will find themselves back in the comfort they felt with internal, wired networks and server rooms, but without the wires and servers.

- Edge Virtualization Will Enable Massive Retrofitting of Installed Infrastructure 

The functional capabilities of 5G will enable closing-the-loop on mission-critical applications and provide confidence to enterprise operational leaders that they can trust the new network and its computing capabilities. However, the more disruptive effect of these 5G attributes will be the virtualization of the network and edge compute facilitating the retrofitting of the installed base of equipment and infrastructure with edge intelligence.