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20 February, 2019
Skyworks Solutions, Inc., an innovator of high performance analog semiconductors connecting people, places and things, announced that MediaTek, a global fabless semiconductor company that enables 1.5 billion connected devices a year, is utilising its Sky5 suite for their new 5G reference platforms. (more…)
18 February, 2019
Parallel Wireless, Inc., claims to be the provider of the world’s first end-to-end software-based unified network solution across All Gs (2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G), announced that Kalimat Telecom, a subsidiary of Kuwait’s Trade Links, has selected Parallel Wireless to build out their mobile broadband network in Iraq. (more…)
15 February, 2019
Estimates predict that there will be 1 billion 5G users worldwide by 2023. The potential impact of 5G technology has been well discussed in recent years, writes Caroline Puygrenier, the director of strategy and business development for connectivity at Interxion. The technology has the potential to dramatically improve data speeds, increase network bandwidth and reduce latency, transforming every industry from manufacturing and marketing to communications and entertainment.
14 February, 2019
For all developed nations, competitiveness is going to depend heavily on super-fast 5G connectivity, writes Hakan Ekmen, the chief executive of P3 communications.
(more…)
11 February, 2019
Most of us now expect to be able to use our phones wherever we go and, because of this, demand for high-capacity in-building coverage will continue to grow in 2019, writes Ingo Flömer, the vice president of Business Development and Technology, at Cobham Wireless.
25 January, 2019
With 2019 underway, Alastair Hartrup, the global chief executive of Network Critical, shares thoughts on key topics that will impact the IT industry, especially for service providers and telecoms. In 2019, network infrastructure and technology will be changing both in terms of good and bad.
5G is on the way, but not this year
5G was a hot topic last year. Many service providers across the world began running trials to test the network and there was confidence that 2019 would be the year that 5G enters the public on a wider scale. Unfortunately, this seems unlikely to be the case. Reports highlight that early testing from major service providers has shown that the technology is an advanced version of 4G as opposed to the next iteration of mobile networks.
Ultimately, those waiting for the 5G revolution this year need to cast their minds back to the initial introduction of 4G. Once 4G was public, service providers were still utilising 3G as its de facto network and upgrading still took time. The same will most likely happen here.
Even if 5G manages to go live at the tail-end of the year, it will be very limited and not close to the wide adoption that many are hoping for. It would also be very consumer focused. Traditionally, enterprise technology adoption has always been a few years behind the consumer, so it makes the idea of enterprise 5G near-impossible.
Even more clouds in the business
Cloud computing has been a hot topic for enterprises for a long time. Over the years there has been a greater adoption of the cloud as businesses begin to see the benefits of its off-premise storage offerings, however, cloud computing also comes with risks. As more data is placed into the cloud the impact its loss will have on a company grows significantly. While many service providers aim for the cloud to be as secure as possible, its nature as a virtual software means that it becomes harder to identify the origin of the problem.
Despite these risks though, the market is growing as more tools are being implemented to both improve the security and efficiency of the cloud. Open-source software like Kubernetes is allowing businesses to make the most of the cloud as they can. Meanwhile, network monitoring tools, along with packet brokers and TAPs, are being introduced in order to improve cloud security by managing incoming traffic and dealing with the large amount of data kept in the cloud. As the tools to make the cloud more reliable and safer are created, so too does the cloud continue to see growth and support from companies. In 2019, this will continue, as the cloud becomes a more mandatory aspect of any workplace.
The move to the virtual office
In previous years, adoption towards virtualisation within IT businesses has been slow. Many service providers and enterprises require large, powerful machines that take up entire warehouses in order to keep their networks up and running. This is costly and not as efficient. Hardware is still relied on due to a long-standing fear that digital applications are more vulnerable to attacks and harder to maintain. However, new advances have helped to mitigate these fears. While new hardware will continue to be made and used by companies, many traditionally hardware-focused solutions, such as packet brokers and TAPs, will begin to go virtual while staying just as reliable as their physical counterparts.
The packet broker market continues to grow
A 2018 report by analyst firm MarketsandMarkets highlighted that the network packet broker market is expected to reach £660.4m (US$860m) by 2023. This is up from the £454m (US$591m) market in 2018, and an annual predicted growth rate of 7.73% during this forecast period. This report truly shows great things are happening within this market. As networks increase in complexity and more data is funnelled through, the benefits of packet brokers, and TAPs, are becoming more apparent.
This is especially true as the packet broker technology begins to advance. Service providers trying to implement 5G will require packet brokers in their databases to filter through and make better sense of the increased traffic.
Packet brokers are also making the jump to digital which saves on both space and power while allowing for a more scalable solution. With this jump to digital, it also means packet brokers can be stored in the cloud now and be more directly involved with networks that are making that move. Packet Brokers can already work within the cloud but the changes we will see this year will improve the reliability and make this solution a stronger one.
All in all, 2019 is going to be a year of change for businesses, particularly for service and telecom providers. There will be many changes both internally with company technology and infrastructure, as well as externally with the services on offer. While not every projection will hit its mark, the new technology adopted in the industry will help improve efficiency and save money, a major benefit to any enterprise going forward.
17 January, 2019
We’re moving to a 5G world. It’ll be one where data is vital to our daily lives. Data now needs to be instantaneous. Any delay, even for an nth of a second, could be catastrophic in an always-on world. That nth could be a tenth of a second, nothing more. But no matter how fast your fibre connection, if information has to travel across continents to get to you, there’s going to be latency, writes Jack Pouchet, the vice president of business development at Vertiv.
Imagine sitting in an autonomous car at 70mph with vehicles whizzing all around you. That nth of a second could be the difference between a collision and a smooth journey home.
Smart cities, the Internet of Things (IoT), connected cars, online gaming and machine-to-machine (M2M) communications are all driving the demand for instant connections. This, in turn, is driving the trend to edge computing.
On-the-edge computing, as the industry calls it, removes that latency and provides the instant connectivity the modern world and mission critical applications demand.
History to lead the future
As a result, the edge will both benefit from, and drive the development of, more reliable and faster internet connections. It makes for a shared future between the edge and 5G. However, it’s not just the future that connects them – these technologies could in fact benefit from key learnings in each other’s past evolution. The implementation of 4G LTE (long-term evolution) is a great example. Whereas 3G could connect society more easily, 4G truly brought high-speed data connectivity to the masses. It expanded quickly and became integral to society’s day-to-day life.
This illustrates that businesses and society will eagerly adopt any new developments in 5G as well. Given its correlation with the edge, it could imply that the edge needs to be 5G ready. But how can you be ready for something that’s undefined at the moment? This is not impossible, as it primarily means the edge needs to be communication ready, and this is already feasible. Vertiv can, for example, offer fully integrated and scalable systems with high-quality communications capabilities.
Another key learning from the 3G/4G/5G evolution is its inherent influence on infrastructure development. Whereas 3G allowed for places of leisure, such as McDonald’s and airports, to become connectivity hubs, 4G enabled the further implementation of technology globally, both in cities and rural areas. With the boost in implementation and usage also came an increased need for more robust, secure edge resources.
Similarly, the edge will see a change in infrastructure needs with the progress of 5G. We don’t yet know what 5G cellular architectures will look like. However, we know they will enable more consumer applications, as well as potential other applications we haven’t imagined yet. This means that telco, cloud and colocation architectures will evolve to meet 5G and edge needs. It is expected that cloud and colocation companies will continue to expand their footprint to provide services closer to users. This, combined with the continued deployment of edge-ready local infrastructure, matched to archetypes and use cases, will create an edge ecosystem that extends far beyond traditional small-space edge deployments.
The current edge
It seems like the direction of future developments is not as mysterious as one might think. So how ready is the industry for 5G and edge computing to really take hold? In an effort to understand and foresee future demand, Vertiv analysed a variety of emerging use cases, resulting in the ‘Edge Archetypes’ report. The report identified four primary edge archetypes:
This represents use cases where the amount of data makes it impractical to transfer over the network directly to the cloud, or from the cloud to the point-of-use, because of data volume, cost or bandwidth issues. This includes the technologies needed for smart cities.
This includes use cases where services are optimised for human consumption, for example smart retail and augmented reality. Speed is of the essence for these use cases, hence the need to use the edge.
This segment covers use cases where services are optimised for machine-to-machine consumption. Machines can process data much faster than humans and therefore require a higher speed. Examples include developments for Smart Grid and Defence force simulation.
The final archetype speaks to the imagination: it covers use cases that directly impact human health and safety – thus requiring speed and reliability. Technologies such as drones, digital health and smart transportation fall into this segment.
Developments in 5G cellular networks will both enable and drive the evolution of these archetypes, and the edge in general, to allow for the implementation of edge-dependent applications.
It might seem like these developments are still out of reach and need to be government-driven due to its vastness. However, the commercial sector is more likely to truly drive this evolution with the development of consumer-oriented services and apps – increasing the demand of the edge’s capabilities.
With the available knowledge at hand and the opportunity for the commercial sector to drive demand, the realisation of edge computing and 5G cellular networks might just be closer than you think.
16 January, 2019
The close of 2018 saw the UK operator O2 leave its customers without access to 3G or 4G data connectivity for more than 24 hours. The ensuing uproar underlined the critical importance of mobile broadband to all UK consumers, writes Tony Gillick, the vice president of solutions management at Openet.
14 January, 2019
The bi-directional downlink and uplink data call was made at the Ericsson Lab in Kista, Sweden last December 20. It brings a new sub-6 frequency band one step closer to commercial rollout. (more…)
10 January, 2019
3GPP Release 15 delivered the essential New Radio (NR) milestone needed in the definition of every new generation, but, alone, this will deliver only a few of the early promises of 5G. Alan Carlton, VP of InterDigital Europe, says what comes next in Phase 2 (and beyond) will be what really defines this wireless generation. (more…)
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