Edge Infrastructure as the New Normal for Global Telecoms

Many ways abound for telecommunications operators to drive digital transformation from their end of the ICT spectrum, but edge computing is the buzz word at the moment, aiming to increase the pace of making telecoms services available to the end users and in good quality. OMOBAYO AZEEZ reports.

Edge computing is a distributed computing paradigm that brings computation and data storage closer to the location where it is needed, to improve response times and save bandwidth.

The notion that telecoms operations are configured in a way driven by availability of adequate infrastructure still leaves much to be desired in a country such as Nigeria where deployment of infrastructure is faced by many challenges ranging from investment shortage to safety of already deployed infrastructure.

This scenario is leaving the country with a lopsided infrastructure distribution pattern and a wide digital divide which, according authorities in the sector, is not in the best interest of digital transformation aspiration of the country in the medium and long term.

In addition to this is a recent revelation by the of the  Universal Access Provision Fund (USPF), an arm of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), that unequal infrastructure distribution has resulted into some 31.1 million Nigerians in some 114 clusters being denied basic digital access.

According Ike Nnamani, chief executive officer of Medallion Communications and first vice president of Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), the current situation demands operators to redesign their networks and key into edge infrastructure in the country .

Nnamani, who made this call recently at a virtual meeting hosted by ATCON, noted that the networks are not properly designed for the future, adding that the coronavirus outbreak has exposed the big disconnection between the traffic pattern, content sources, and infrastructure distribution in Nigeria.

As a result, the Medallion Communications Boss tasked mobile network operators and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) on the need to build on Edge Infrastructure.

Already, it has been reported that communications service providers (CSPs) believe they see a clear opportunity in the emerging edge computing market, while other potential players including public cloud providers and over-the-top (OTT) content players are equally attracted by the prospect of delivering the edge.

Today’s networks, according to him are not properly designed to accommodate the future services that will be run on the networks. Except the networks are redesigned and problems are addressed, there will be issues in the nearest future, he noted.

In his words, “The advent of COVID-19 has brought about digital transformations and an increase in local traffic. There is a disconnect between the way networks are being distributed in the country and locations where traffic is generated.

“This has to do with the voice calling patterns, data traffic patterns, and what people are actually doing with telecoms and ICT services globally and in Nigeria.”

Speaking of the problem, Nnamani stressed that this will continue to impact the quality of service and content delivery to the subscribers if the networks are not redesigned to get the content closer to the end users.

“We will run into problems down the line, if we continue to build on it, without redesigning the networks. Although our local internet traffic is being exchanged here in the country, 80 per cent of the contents are exchanged outside the cities they are generated this leads to network congestion.

“We need to be mindful of this disconnect, if not, all the efforts we are putting in now, even with the National Broadband Plan (NBP) or various investments, results will not be seen.” he explained.

Speaking further, Nnamani disclosed the future of telecom service delivery globally is at the Edge.

He said infrastructures are now been deployed and implemented on the Edge. For a better quality of service, better content delivery, operators need to be as close enough as possible to their end-users.

“Edge infrastructure is what will drive the economy in the digital Nigeria we are looking forward to. If we don’t get it right, we will keep asking ourselves why the quality of service is still poor.” he emphasized.

Need for more Data Centres

To adopt edge computing in the Nigerian telecoms industry automatically calls for additional more data centres scattered all of the country to bring digital resources closer to the end users and thereby, improve pervasiveness of telecoms service as well as its fidelity.

In his explanation to BusinessMetricsNG, Olusola Teniola, president of ATCON, said edge computing itself is a technology that takes away some of the core functionality from the centre of a network and places it at the edge.

The intelligence behind this, according to him, is to bring the core functionality closer to the consumers and this is where availability of adequate data becomes imperative.

“This requires a lot more data centres to be built in the country so that the functionality can be placed around those data centres distributed across the country.

“This is just one way among many others that we can improve the way we deploy the networks to be able to realize the digital transformation that is quite good for our digital economy. There are other technologies that we can use but edge computing is the buzz word at the moment,” Teniola said.

Currently, there are very few data centres operating in Nigeria and majority of them are located only in urban centres where they can have access to vital resources and economic viability supportive of their businesses.

To meet such huge data centre demand, Nnamani of Medallion Communications said his organization will be spending a handsome amount of resources building data centres for the edge which will be concentrated in various cities in Nigeria.

However, he said “Medallion can’t do it alone. We need others to understand the changing pattern of traffic and how to redesign the networks to be able to get quality content closer to the end-users – our subscribers”.

Adoption means more revenue for operators

Meanwhile, Vertiv, a global provider of critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions, together with technology analyst firm, Omdia just released a new report on the implications of the shift to edge computing for telecom operators and the best tactics and strategies for capitalising on edge growth.

The report with the title “Telcos and Edge Computing: Opportunity, Threat or Distraction?” reveals that growth in edge computing could generate new revenue opportunities for operators.

Omdia, formerly Ovum, says specifically that mobile and wireline operators can build a platform for the development of edge services while saving massively on costs by combining existing cell tower networks with central offices and aggregation points such as edge data centres.

“The growth at the edge opens opportunities for telecom providers to develop new services related to 5G, Internet of Things (IoT) and other innovative technologies,” said Gary Niederpruem, chief strategy and development officer at Vertiv.

“Operators will need partners with international reach, as well as a breadth of solutions and services, to support them on their edge journey,” he added.

The Omdia report also reveals that edge growth should open up new areas of competition, with 36 per cent of those surveyed believing that network operators will be most important in the creation of new revenue services from edge.

Application developers (30%) and public cloud providers (25%) are also seen as key edge players, the report added.

According to Julian Bright, senior telecoms analyst, Omdia, communications service providers (CSPs) believe they see a clear opportunity in the emerging edge computing market, but other potential players including public cloud providers and over-the-top (OTT) content players, are equally attracted by the prospect of delivering edge infrastructure.

“The size of share that service providers can expect to capture in the market for edge computing will depend on several factors. These include how successfully they can evolve their networks to support edge computing paradigms and avoid becoming mere connectivity providers,” said Bright, who doubles as the author of the report.

The report specifically addresses the role prefabricated modular data centres (PFM) will likely play in helping telecoms operators deliver future edge infrastructure, with the PFM market forecast to grow from $1.2 billion in 2018 to $4.3 billion in 2023.

This projected growth will be driven by telcos and the growth of edge computing, as well as overall growth by cloud service providers, the report highlights.

Last Line

The current infrastructure design that worked well in the past for telecoms operators cannot serve the future needs and dynamics of the industry if it must render better services. Therefore, the need for an early switch to edge computing by Nigerian operators, which currently is acknowledged as the way out, has never be more important.