BT has teamed up with Wind River to research and showcase edge cloud computing applications.
This has led to a joint proof of concept, which highlights use cases such as vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication in order to avoid collisions, remote vehicle control, and augmented reality that involves multi-person sessions without disrupting the gameplay.
It uses Wind River’s Titanium Cloud virtualization software, a BT cellular base station, and a local traffic offload capability from Athonet (a software-based mobile core provider). If you want to see the proof of concept in action, you’ll be able to at SDN NFV World Congress 2018, which runs from now until October 12. Check out the Titanium Cloud explainer video below.
Bringing cloud computing closer
Edge cloud computing refers to doing cloud computing at the edge of a mobile network (rather than in distant servers), by integrating the process into local cellular base stations.
Edge cloud computing is important for 5G as not only can it lower congestion by spreading the load of cloud computing, but also it could be vital for use cases that require extremely low latency, such as for autonomous vehicles and the examples above.
While this current demonstration is just a proof of concept, BT is working with a range of companies – including Athonet and Akamai – to advance edge cloud computing.
And this is just one of many ways BT is working towards 5G. The network has also for example tested an autonomous drone over an intercontinental 5G link, and through EE (which it owns) it is carrying out the UK’s first live 5G trial.
All of this is in preparation for a 5G launch, and BT could be one of the first in the UK to do that, with its first permanent 5G sites likely going live in 2019.
Wind River is a leader in delivering software for the Internet of Things.
James has been writing for us for over 10 years. Currently, he is Editorial Manager for our group of companies ( 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk) and sub-editor at TechRadar. He specialises in smartphones, mobile networks/ technology, tablets, and wearables.
In the past, James has also written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media, Smart TV Radar, and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV. He has a film studies degree from the University of Kent, Canterbury, and has over a decade’s worth of professional writing experience.
