Eagle-Lanner tech blog

 

Private 5G networks are emerging as the connectivity technology of choice for enterprises seeking to implement the transformative applications that drive smart factories, power plants, and the internet of things (IoT). A private 5G network gives companies the ability to customize the network according to specific organizational needs and locations, securely, and on their timetable.

A RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) is a software-defined key element of the Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN) architecture, responsible for optimizing RAN elements and customize RAN functionality at the edge. It manages and optimizes RAN resources to support interoperability across different hardware (RU, servers), and software (DU/CU) components, quick enablement of new services, and triggers near real-time action to improve overall network efficiency. RIC supports innovative use cases that can lower mobile operators’ total costs, enhance customer’s quality of experience (QoE), and quality of service (QoS) -- bringing intelligence, agility, and programmability to radio access networks.

A new report from Gartner forecasts that there will be more than 30.9B IoT devices worldwide by 2025. As this massive growth occurs, manufacturers are already quickly building IoTs for different industries, solutions, use-cases, etc. In turn, this excessive growth results in a complex and diverse IoT ecosystem. The IoT ecosystem is now a diverse set of rules and protocols guiding communication, ruggedness, I/O, firmware, storage, security, processing, and more.

The proliferation of IoT devices and solutions have opened up many opportunities and new use cases for consumers, private networks, industrial applications, and critical communications services. This massive increase in adoption and utilization of new technology will, at the same time, escalate security vulnerabilities. As security is always a continuous concern, there has been an increased focus on hardware-based security, which has shown solid capability in helping to secure devices, minimize risks, and protect digital assets.

5G network rollouts are speeding up globally and spectrums are being allocated to enterprises, allowing the rise of private 5G networks – a network that does not need to share traffic with other cellular networks in the vicinity. This can be a crucial turning point for enterprises, especially for manufacturers who require 5G capabilities to implement the digital transformative applications that drive smart factories, and the Internet of Things (IoT).

The pace of innovation in the networking world continues to increase with the immense growth in devices, increased data flow, and new protocols. As demands for higher throughput and efficiency drive switch development, the standard fixed-function application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) have started to make way for more flexible programmable switch that allows greater control of the data plane. Programmable switch ASICs deliver complete customized flexibility without sacrificing performance, power, or costs.  

The “edge” has become a popular term because it brings value to businesses. Edge computing refers to the data at the network’s edge – on, near or around the physical thing producing the data, which allows the local devices to process the time-sensitive data, rather than having to send the data to a centralized control server for analysis.

Page 9 of 31