Background
Many people would agree that 5G network and edge computing is opening a world of new opportunities and will create a significant impact on our daily lives. This is especially true for Communication Service Providers (CSPs) to create customer value beyond connectivity by pushing it to the edge.
One of the first advantages of 5G most people know of is increased bandwidth to devices, and this means much larger download speeds. Other additional benefits of 5G technology is the impressively low latency in the radio interface, the ability to handle massive amounts of connection points, and to deliver platform consistency and scalability across diverse network locations -- from edge to cloud.
Emerging applications such as virtual and augmented reality, smart city, autonomous vehicles, smart transportation, and IoT aggregation require real-time processing for optimized decision making and functioning of the application. Businesses can leverage 5G and edge computing to accomplish mission critical tasks, improve network speeds, and enhance customer experiences.
Demand for Outdoor Edge Computing
New applications are demanding more network and compute performance, requiring high-performance compute, acceleration, flexible storage, and networking. 5G has a shorter transmission distance capability and require higher frequency bands, which requires more 5G antenna sites. In addition to existing tower infrastructure that needs to be modernized to allow for a more distributed and adaptable network. This further drives the need for servers to be optimized for outdoor installations, deployed outdoors on utility poles or on building walls.
Outdoor Edge System Requirements
The design of the outdoor edge platform has to be weatherproof and tamper-proof, with high-performance computing and acceleration capabilities, power optimization, remote management, and support different applications. These features are vital to enable compute-intensive, cloud-based applications to provide successful operation for providers and users.
Some applications, like AI, require dedicated processing and acceleration, need support for graphics processing units (GPUs), or field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Ability for remote monitoring and management provides the ability to fix issues remotely, greatly reducing time and costs.
Conclusion
As more organizations and applications require edge computing and capabilities of 5G, providers need to use the most advanced technologies, specifically outdoor edge computing, to deliver these business-critical services. According to Gartner, 75% of enterprise data will be created and processed outside data centers by 2025.
Lanner has a portfolio of offerings and customizable solutions specifically to meet these demands. ECA-4025 is a high-performance appliance, powered by 8~16 cores Intel® Xeon® D-2100 series processor (codenamed Skylake-D), designed to leverage edge computing for 5G Open RAN, AI edge-focused, and Edge Cloud deployment. The system has a short depth chassis of 438 x 300 x 44mm and ready to stand up to harsh environments with a wide operating temperature range from -40C to 65C, which makes it ideally suitable for outdoor limited spaces such as pole mount cabinets and edge server rooms.
Lanner’s ISD-O370 is an outdoor IP67-compliant 5G and Wi-Fi 6 wireless, fanless network appliance optimized for IoT, SD-WAN, uCPE, or network edge. This new offering will help service providers better deploy their SD-WAN services in demanding environments and critical infrastructure. Powered by an Intel® Atom® C3000 (codenamed Denverton) processor, the ISD-O370 features solid performance and capabilities. These include Intel’s QuickAssist Technology, which offers cryptographic acceleration and industrial-grade LAN functions in a compact form factor. The Lanner ISD-O370 is a wireless, fanless network appliance ideal for IoT, SD-WAN, uCPE, or edge gateways for smart cities.