This was my first 5G experience in Jan 2021 using my google Pixel 5 and it was a Wow moment. Reminded me of “The Wow!” signal that was received on August 15, 1977, by Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope in the United States. Look it up if you think we are not alone in the universe. I posted the 5g photo on Instagram and there were few disappointed mates as some of their fiber connections were providing them with less speeds. Why am I referring to 5g when this article is about Edge Computing? Keep reading.
The other term that closely goes with Edge Computing is IoT. Smart devices, connected to the internet. For example, the sensor I have in my mailbox (the physical mailbox outside of my house) that tells me via an app when mail is delivered. OK, that’s a too simplistic view of IoT. Think of an oil rig in the northern seas of Great Britain. The number of sensors and processing required to verify the oil pressure, gas pressure, wind direction, water movement, etc. So what does 5G speeds have to do with sensors?
According to Garnter, Edge computing is “a part of a distributed computing topology in which information processing is located close to the edge – where things and people produce or consume that information.” In other words, data is kept closer to the device and processed (The Edge) rather than being transferred to a central location for processing. This is mainly to avoid latency and performance issues and process data in near real time. Faster technologies such as 5G networks facilitate edge computing and allow IoT devices to process data real time.
Now you might say, why on earth are we processing data at the edge when we are supposed to have everything put on the cloud. Valid point. Feels like going backwards. Well, not really. Imagine the oil rig I mentioned before, there will be thousands of devices that will need to send data to the cloud. What does that do? Reduces bandwidth. With edge Computing the data can be processed and consumed near to the edge and only the relevant data can be sent to the cloud. There will only be limited interaction with the cloud. Plus if you are on an oil rig in the northern seas of Great Britain, the closest data centre, be it AWS, Google or Azune will be quite far away.
Edge Computing is here to stay for now given that we are talking about smart cars, smart buildings, home automation, etc. According to IDC the global edge computing market is expected to reach USD 6.72 billion by 2022 at a compound annual growth rate of a whopping 35.4 percent.
Cheers
Arjuna Samarakoon
