Edge Data Centers in the 5G Era

In the 5G network environment, whether traditional data centers need to update their structure depending on the development needs of 5G network construction and application.

Three 5G Use Cases

The International Telecommunications Union listed eMMB, uRLLC and mMTC as the three major use cases for the 5G technology.

eMMB, short for Enhanced Mobile Broadband, emphasizes high bandwidth and high throughput of the network with high data rates of more than 10 Gbps.

uRLLC stands for Ultra Reliable & Low Latency Communication, which provides ultra-responsive and reliable connections. With 5ms end to end latency between UE (user equipment, such as a mobile phone) and 5G eNodeB (an element of an LTE Radio Access Network, such as a base station), it is ideal for use when it is critical to transmitting real-time data.

mMTC means Massive Machine Type Communications. It supports a high density of devices and long-range transmission in addition to low cost and long battery life, making it ideal for Internet of Things applications.

What is an Edge Data Center?

Edge Data Centers are built to support distributed cloud architecture and provide high bandwidth and low latency data services on the edge. Comparing to traditional data centers, Edge Data Centers are more advanced in edge performance and have lower cost requirements. Under 5G use cases, especially in uRLLC, the ultra-low latency applications require data to be processed near the edge.

Edge Data Center Structure

Edge Data Center is a high concentration of computing power and storage. Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) is a suitable architecture that conforms to such usage scenarios.

Convergence in a hyper-converged architecture means storing and computing functions on the hardware resources of the same X86 server, packaged as a single, highly virtualized solution. A distributed architecture is with no clear division of computation and storage between nodes. To expand capacity and performance, one can automate scaling by simply adding new nodes to your existing network.