The future is once again, just around the corner
Do you remember that scene where Batman went to the Sprint store to see why his apps take so long to load? What about that time James Bond had to call Verizon because his Netflix keeps buffering? And how can you forget when Iron Man sat inside Starbucks to connect to wifi for a better connection?
Ok. Let’s rewind.
Have you ever noticed the high-tech devices in action movies? Transparent screens work with the wave of a hand. Cars drive themselves. Handheld devices look like fancy pieces of glass. What else? The characters never have to wait for something to load. Everything just works. There is no delay, no hard drive crash, and nobody asks, “Do you have a charger I can use?”
But that’s just the movies, right? Actually, this is a taste of what the future looks like with the the combination of the upcoming 5G Network and “Edge” computing. 5G will be able to handle the ever growing demands on wireless networks, and Edge computing will be what allows you to take full advantage of 5G speeds. Not sure what that means? Read on…
Your devices currently save data on themselves in their local storage and when they are limited by the local storage they use external data centers. Huge data centers throughout the country, in buildings larger than football fields, are leveraged for storage and operations. Every task you do on your devices involves loading and sending data on your network connection, such as a 3G or 4G LTE network. Right now, your phone is like a small computer. The industry has had to jam many of the same components you’d find in a computer inside your device; microchips, storage, a large battery, a screen, and antennas.
So how would the 5G connection and Edge computing make any difference? To keep things simple, it will be fast. Really, really fast. 5G will enable connection speeds so fast that everything you do on any device will seem instant. And here enters Edge computing.
As the name implies, Edge computing is optimizing “the cloud” by performing data processing at “the edge” of your network, near the source of the data. Instead of sending and loading your data from one huge data center in the middle of the country, imagine having a smaller data center next to your cell phone tower. It will have a much smaller amount of supercomputers that can run your programs and process data right over the network.
If data can be processed over the air instantaneously, then the whole experience can be “broadcasted” to your device, eliminating the need for all those components that are inside your devices now. This will significantly change how your devices are designed. Imagine playing a game on a computer, except that all you need is a screen and controls. The entire experience will run on the Edge with a blazing fast 5G Network connection, delivering the content right to you with no delay.
Suddenly, the screens that look like some transparent, futuristic glass from the movies are not so far-fetched. Broadcasted user experiences means less “stuff” needed to run your devices, which equates to less power usage. Less time charging batteries. Less time figuring out why your app doesn’t load properly. The overall way you use any device will seem instant and the physical aspect of technology, that is hardware itself, will be unobtrusive.
Instantaneous data in the air means extremely accurate, real time information with an unlimited number of benefiting use cases, such as robotic surgical tools which aid doctors during complex operations (maybe Iron Man was on to something…), safe driverless cars which communicate road hazards and need to process data instantly, and the extremely data-demanding entertainment industry with growing trends of multi-casting live video in super hi-def 4K resolutions and virtual-reality technologies.
If you question the ability to have an instant connection, see Verizon’s test run of a driver operating a vehicle with no visibility other than a camera streaming the outside environment via a 5G connection.
“We put a driver in a car, we blacked out the car completely… we set up our 5G wireless network, and we made the driver drive with no visibility other than a head cam, which was streaming from the 5G network. They were able to run round the circuit at 60 miles an hour with no external visibility only relying on the relay coming from the 5G network, because of the virtually zero latency, they were able to drive exactly as normal. When you see that as an example, when you see the difference between 5G latency and 4G latency is a car traveling at 60 miles an hour responding their reaction time being four inches rather than four feet, and you start to get an idea of how there are some amazing capability here…”
- Ronan Dunne, Executive Vice President and Group President of Verizon Wireless.
The race for 5G is underway. Companies such as Qualcomm, Samsung, Sprint and its parent company SoftBank, Verizon and many others are planning, designing and acquiring the necessary infrastructure to support this next generation “Internet of Things”. There will be a stream of new companies which will service and support all of the technology required to get this new generation up and running.
The future is once again, just around the corner.
by Alexander
