INTELLIGENT CABLING
Building datacentres at the
edge of the network
In order to build computing capability at the edge of the network, micro-
datacentres will be required, explains Shibu Vahid at R&M.
T
he growth in private and business
data traffic continues unabated.
And the Internet of Things, 5G
and mobility now need to be taken into
consideration as they have begun to cause
an additional exponential growth of IP
traffic while requiring ultra-low latency
even in remote places.
The hyperscale datacentres that service
providers have been investing in today will
not be able to fully cover the new network,
computing and storage requirements of
the coming years. Therefore, telcos will
have to extend computing power to the
30
edge of their network to support their
large, central datacentres.
Service providers and network
operators can prepare for this by setting
up the necessary infrastructures for the
periphery in good time, providing they
start doing so now. This will entail a
wide-scale increase in fibre optic cabling,
something that is presently happening
with the many FTTH undertakings
in the region, and the installation of
decentralised micro-datacentres.
These micro-datacentres are
autonomous, automatable and sturdy
solutions which have to be powerful enough
to assume a leading role in the cloud.
A striking application example for
edge computing is future of road traffic. A
study by the German Fraunhofer research
institute, has shown that for cars to be
fully automated and safe, they would have
to be able to react within 0.1 milliseconds.
The exchange of information with the
environment, with antennas, sensors and
other vehicles would effectively have to
take place at the speed of light.
Along with future 5G services, this
will require a fibre optic network along
Issue 17
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS