The synergy of 5G networks with edge computing offers a range of benefits. 6G also requires a strong blend of edge computing to provide the latency and high speed required for networks. Edge computing, combined with 5G and 6G, creates opportunities to enhance digital experiences, improve performance, support data security and enable continuous operations in every industry. Edge computing brings computation and data storage closer to where data is created by people, places, and things. Together, the blend of these technologies creates opportunities for new products, platforms and experiences. Further, workloads created in the cloud, including some of the more modern forms of artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics, can now be migrated towards the edge.
Blending 5G and edge
The blend of 5G and edge computing promises numerous opportunities. While 5G can increase speeds by up to 10 times over 4G, mobile edge computing can lower latency. Therefore, when 5G and edge are combined, storing and processing time-sensitive data on high-bandwidth devices becomes easier. As per KPMG’s research with the International Data Corporation on 5G and edge computing, five sectors were found to be witnessing incremental growth of over $500 billion in 2023. These are industrial manufacturing, connected healthcare, intelligent transportation, environmental monitoring and gaming, which are poised to grow on the back of improved connectivity arising from the integration of 5G and edge.
Enabling telcos to move beyond connectivity
For telcos, the integration of 5G and edge computing presents an opportunity to look beyond connectivity and identify new ways to help realise value. This ecosystem is built on the four pillars of connectivity, hardware, software and services. Key players include network equipment manufacturers, autonomous vehicle/robot manufacturers, augmented reality (AR)/virtual reality (VR) device and platform vendors, internet of things (IoT) producers and semiconductor companies. Currently, the deployment of 5G is taking place at a slow pace, leaving insufficiency in cultivating an ecosystem of new applications. In such a scenario, edge computing can help expand the market of 5G coverage in a timely manner.
As telcos expand their 5G coverage and introduce new use cases to the market, the network capacity and service agility of the metro and edge networks need to expand accordingly. Additionally, according to Deloitte, the number of connected devices in India is expected to reach 27 billion in 2025, pushing edge cloud to provide the necessary resources to process and manage the large amount of data generated by these devices.
Together with 5G, edge cloud will allow telcos to provide a more immersive experience to their subscribers. With telcos introducing massive machine-type communications and ultra-reliable low latency communications-based use cases that demand extreme reliability, high data rates and ultra-low latency, edge cloud will become more critical. Industrial automation, 5G private networks, network slicing, connected vehicles, online gaming, AR and VR are some of these use cases that will benefit from the blend of 5G and edge.
Advantages for industries
The multiple benefits of deploying 5G technology include support for solving business challenges, reshaping value chains, enhancing revenue models and optimising operations across industries. While edge computing is needed to obtain the financial benefits of 5G, a combination of the two can help create significant fiscal value for those in the ecosystem.
For instance, in the manufacturing sector, which was deeply impacted during the pandemic, the benefits of 5G and edge computing can be beneficial. Although not all manufacturers are well placed to accelerate the advanced digitalisation of these two technologies, those who do will be capable of reducing cost, and improving the speed of production and quality of their products. Above all, they stand to gain a competitive advantage in the market.
Merging 5G and edge computing is poised to introduce a new age in industrial manufacturing. Fast-tracking Industry 4.0 will help bring autonomous factories with new technologies to the market. There is a massive opportunity to enable increased speed and agility to harvest real-time data and improve productivity with the hardware, software, connectivity and services ecosystem, as well as autonomous robots, AR/VR, IoT devices and other technologies. This has the potential to play a key role in setting the global economy on the path to recovery.
Sectors such as banking, retail and mining can design superior personalised experiences by reaping the benefits of edge computing’s massively decentralised computing architecture. For instance, edge can help banks increase consumer safety via real-time analysis of ATM video feeds. In the case of mining companies, data can be used to improve their operations, worker safety and productivity, and reduce energy consumption. Retailers can further personalise the shopping experience for their customers and rapidly communicate specialised offers. Automating the remote distribution and management of their kiosk-based applications can help ensure that they continue to operate even when they are not connected or have poor network connectivity.
“While edge computing is needed to obtain the financial benefits of 5G, a combination of the two can help create significant fiscal value for those in the ecosystem.”
Integrated future – 6G and the edge
As 5G gains ground across the globe, talks about 6G have already begun. The technology is set to be launched by 2030. As the successor to 5G, this next-generation technology is poised to redefine connectivity, introducing capabilities that go far beyond its predecessor. 6G technology will also have integrated elements of edge computing in the network. Mobile edge computing will be built into all 6G networks, while it will only be added to existing 5G networks.
The need to deploy edge computing to ensure overall throughput and low latency for ultra-reliable low-latency communications solutions is an important driver of 6G. 6G networks will create substantially more data than 5G networks, and computing will evolve to include coordination between edge and core platforms. In response to those changes, data centres will have to evolve.
Further, edge and core computing will be more integrated as part of a combined communications and computation infrastructure framework by the time 6G networks are deployed. This approach will provide many advantages as 6G technology becomes operational. These benefits include improved access to AI capabilities and support for sophisticated mobile devices and systems.
6G networks will use AI-based services such as big data analytics for key decision-making in various real-time scenarios. Thus, edge computing will play a significant role in 6G networks. The idea is for powerful edge servers to be deployed as an intermediate layer to provide localised and ultra-low latency processing for real-time applications. Since cloud-based processing can suffer from long delays and transmission overhead, edge computing can complement cloud computing. Network services are designed so that fast content caching and processing are done at the edge to perform delay-sensitive critical tasks, while cloud servers are used to achieve deeper and more efficient processing at the expense of higher delays.
The way forward
Net, net, the integration of 5G and 6G networks with edge computing offers a plethora of opportunities for telcos and enterprises across the value chain. While the use cases of 5G and edge are still emerging, work has already begun to explore the synergy between 6G and edge computing. Together, these efforts will help create use cases that promise far-reaching benefits across the digital ecosystem.
“6G networks will create substantially more data than 5G networks, and computing will evolve to include coordination between edge and core platforms. In response to those changes, data centres will have to evolve.”
