In 2020 I presented about the integration of 5G and SDWAN for Enterprise Customers. Back then 5G still was in the 1st phase of deployments globally and 2 service providers in the US were working on the enablement of this technology across multiple big cities.
I knew that when 5G mature and grow nationally, Enterprise customers will look for this technology for the use of their remote branches and the integration of this technology with SDWAN. We are now seeing this happening across multiple verticals.
5G enable the Enterprise customers to take advantage of this technology by allowing them to build their own private network using Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC).
But before we jump there let’s share a little bit about the current architecture of 4G (LTE) and the future architecture of 5G
With 5G we are bringing the flexibility of building a Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) and this will facilitate the interconnectivity of Enterprise customers on 5G.
Some of the benefits of MEC are:
Provides Compute and other resources at Edge
• OS, Automation, Applications and APIs for eco-system.
• Supports Multiple Access Technologies.
• Wireless (LTE, 5G, WiFi etc), Wireline.
Better user experience
• Low latency applications like video streaming, AR, VR.
Realtime decision making
• Connected Car, Autonomous Vehicles, Industrial Automation, Public Safety.
Cost saving
• Save backhaul bandwidth requirements by putting content at the edge
New services
• New services/applications like location based localized services, AR, VR, Industrial automation for both mobility and fixed access
Security
• Flexibility in providing the security in Enterprise environment
• Provide security or complement security for the end devices from EDGE
How will MEC on 5G and SDWAN will coexist together? This diagram provide great details:
And then with the integration of SDWAN we can take advantage of the transport and at the same time build a full integration of the deployment across any cloud (Public, Private, Hybrid).
To learn more about the different components of SDWAN I recommend you to visit this website: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/enterprise-networks/sd-wan/white_paper-c11-741071.html
And then, most importantly, how this integration can be done on Cloud Providers, Private Data Centers and the mix of both worlds.
And last but not least the entire process and integration of both solutions can be 100% automated
Thanks and see you on my next article!
Feel free to ping me if you have any questions.
Rafael Ceara
