How smart edge technologies enable agile, scalable and on-demand services.

The new data paradigm

Since launching in Australia in March 2015, Netflix and other video streaming services now account for a huge proportion of Australian network traffic. It’s a stark example of how rich media consumption is driving demands for greater bandwidth, but it is only the beginning. Machine learning, artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR respectively) are all in their early days of mass roll out, and are all intensive users of bandwidth.

Clearly, there is a role for network operators like Telstra in meeting the data deluge challenge. However, the big question for service providers is how to add value on top of the network infrastructure. We caught up with Koby Bergman of MRV/ADVA Optical Networking to understand how the smart edge solutions in their devices, which are used across Telstra Wholesale’s fibre network, will help their customers thrive.

The networking challenge

Providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft have been successful delivering Infrastructure as a Service through cloud services. Koby notes that, while cloud is flexible enough to host all kinds of use cases, there are still some applications and processes that need to operate 'at the network edge', meaning outside of the cloud.

“With over 20 billion connected devices on the Internet of Things (IoT) by 2020, it’s just not reasonable to think that they will all connect directly to cloud services. Some functional data will need to be stored and analysed at the edge before it is synthesised and sent back to the cloud. Some use cases, such as driverless cars, also require very low latency connectivity that can only be delivered by processing algorithms in the vehicle itself”, he says.

"We are putting compute power into each point of presence through a universal Customer Premises Equipment box", Koby Bergman, MRV/ADVA Optical Networking

Empowering the network edge

Koby explains how we are moving towards that state with smart edge solutions: “we are putting compute power into each POP through a universal Customer Premises Equipment box. This ‘white box’ is a piece of vendor-agnostic infrastructure that uses automation, network function virtualisation and software-defined networking to offer network functions on demand”.
Service providers will be able to leverage the empowered edge to develop and sell a new range of services including bandwidth on demand, latency and performance as a service, and value-add virtualised network functions, without the traditional infrastructure costs.

Connecting to the edge

There are two ways of connecting to this paradigm-shifting smart edge solution.
For larger businesses with development capabilities, network operators such as Telstra will operate the networking and compute infrastructure, while the enterprises can create and deploy applications via application programming interfaces (APIs).

Smaller businesses that want to choose from a ready-made menu of functions and features such as connectivity, firewalls, IoT solutions, and analytics applications, can access them through a portal instead.

Focus on innovation, not infrastructure

The ultimate aim of smart edge networking is for it to enable service providers to create, test and deploy added value services, without being held back by network constraints, and without committing capital expenditure on infrastructure as demands grow. Customers can focus on creating new applications such as IoT solutions and network functions, and then roll them out on rapid timeframes. Koby is understandably enthusiastic about realising the potential of the smart edge. “It opens up countless opportunities that we haven’t even thought of yet,” he concludes.