Report: How Evolving Power Architectures Will Capitalise on Full Potential of 5G, Edge Computing

Emma Okonji

A report published by Mobile World Live, a premier destination for news, insight and intelligence for the global mobile industry and sponsored by Vertive, which focuses on hardware, software and data analytics to improve global businesses, has revealed how evolving power architectures would capitalise on the full potential of 5G and Edge Computing, while stressing the importance of 5G technology for economic growth and digital transformation.  

According to the report, pervasive connectivity is rewriting the rules of business and it’s happening much faster now that organisations around the world have fully embraced digital transformation.

“As a result, convergence is accelerating across industries. Telecommunications operators are converging with IT services providers, by offering enormous bandwidth and ultra­fast processing speeds that can be used to develop and deliver new products. Organisations are converging with telecommunications providers, by standing up private high­ speed networks for their own use and packaging voice, data, and video in a single offering. Business models are converging, as partners work together in new ways to enable exciting industry use cases. Computing is converging, as it becomes embedded in more processes, shapeshifts across devices and form factors, and guides how humans interact with the world. And equipment is converging, as high­ performance IT equipment now sits next to both AC and DC power equipment at edge and access sites,” the report said.

It further explained that 5G would create $13.2 trillion in new economic opportunity by 2035, “as everyone wants to be a 5G leader, to seize the opportunities that the transformative mobile wireless technology will enable. 5G provides processing speeds that are up to 100­times faster than Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology; supports 100times more connections than 4G; offers latency that is less than a millisecond; and delivers reliability that is 99.999 per cent guaranteed.”

The report predicted that as a result, organisations will use 5G to unleash incredible innovation around the world, adding that the development of 5G networks also means that supporting power requirements are changing fast. This trend is creating both challenges and opportunities for telecommunications operators and other organisations to master.

The report also maintained that the adoption of edge computing to support workloads such as digital workspaces, video conferencing media streaming, and more, as well as the continued global rollout of 5G, has set the stage for even more data ­rich use cases, where processing speeds, latency requirements, and other factors are even more critical.

The report described edge infrastructure as the physical compute infrastructure such as servers, power, cooling, and enclosures that are installed on networks between end devices and core data centres.

It identified four different edge models that are key to supporting fast-paced digital business growth globally to include: device edge, micro edge, distributed edge data centre, and regional edge data centre, adding the infrastructure pose both challenges and opportunities for telecoms operators.

Giving details how the edge infrastructure will reduce energy consumption, the report said high-density racks would require more power and cooling, necessitating that telecommunications operators find more efficient solutions to control power use and costs.

“Energy comprises 20 to 40 per cent of a telecoms company’s total operating expenditures, so any solution that provides power conversion efficiency and can be scaled across sites will deliver significant cost savings. In addition, telecommunications providers are facing increased regulatory and shareholder pressure to improve the sustainability of their operations, while new capital investments may be tied to achieving ambitious energy efficiency goals,” the report said.

The report therefore insisted that edge computing would hold a world of promise for both telecommunications providers and industry organisations, since they could unlock greater value from the data they possess, while designing and delivering data­ rich, latency ­sensitive applications for B2B and B2C customers alike.

It advised telecommunications providers and organisations to support evolving power architectures such as processing AC and DC power in the same location and adding capacity when and where it is needed, to enable them exploit the full value of edge computing.