Reducing IoT Costs and Enhancing Performance with Low Latency at the Edge and Private 5G

Written by Kevin Liew on 30 Jan 2023
56,148 Views • Mobile News

The holy grail of all business innovations is to be able to enhance performance and reduce costs simultaneously. As edge computing and 5G are more broadly adopted, businesses can leverage these technologies to help deliver better services and products while reducing costs.

As the world speeds ever faster into an automated, AI-enhanced future with autonomous vehicles, smart cities, augmented reality and more, the demands on mobile broadband networks will be too great. The data processing necessary for all the IoT solutions is too complex and expensive without innovation. Private 5G and low latency at the edge do exactly that.

What is a Private 5G Network?

5G is the next iteration of public mobile networks and it is impressively powerful. The challenge is that the current rollout of 5G is taking time as the infrastructure needs to be updated to provide the full 5G public network, which is 10 times faster than the current 4G. This is where private 5G can make a difference.

A private 5G network is a purpose-built, custom network that is isolated from any public network, enabling the user to maximize the bandwidth and power of that network to accomplish their desired outcomes. Low-latency networks like this are ideal for manufacturing, automation or any other industry that needs real-time data analytics and lightning-fast response times.

How Can Edge Technology Reduce Internet of Things (IoT) Costs?

IoT devices are not typically very expensive. They are small and are good at a handful of things, such as gathering data from sensors or cameras and transmitting that data. It is the handling of that data, (sending it, storing, and analyzing it) that can get very expensive.

Doing real-time data analytics with edge computing technologies reduce the networking and cloud costs of moving large swaths of data unnecessarily. Data is analyzed and sorted at the edge of the network and only the important, pertinent information is sent. This reduces network traffic and the costs that come with it.

Another added benefit according to NTT, is the sustainability aspect of edge computing and private 5G. “Edge computing can support the creation of sustainable solutions and environmentally friendly practices in several ways, such as enabling the more efficient use of resources.”

Why Do Low Latency Networks Matter?

Low latency networks are crucial for the success of many of the future’s expected smart systems. High-speed data processing in real-time is key to running cost-effective factory floors, automated self-driving cars, smart metering, and energy distribution systems. Private 5G can provide these low latency networks because they are not open and available to the public.

How Do 5G and Edge Computing Work Together?

High-speed, low-latency networks, combined with edge computing technologies, give companies the ability to run analytics for almost any type of process or system on-site and with no bandwidth or network traffic issues. Mission-critical information will not need to be sent over the internet to a central hub to be processed and sent back. All that data can stay in-house and artificial intelligence can be used to extract the valuable insights inherent in that data. This saves organizations time and money.

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