Dallas Tech Center Optimizes 5G and Edge Services Collaboration

As 5G and edge evolve, data centers will play a critical role in helping customers take advantage of these technologies, both in terms of gaining access to best-in-class infrastructure and leading partner ecosystems. Equinix is well-positioned to support the technical and business transitions that 5G and edge will bring with them, along with the related edge services required to make new 5G and edge applications successful. To ensure our customers a smooth transition with these real-world challenges, Equinix has opened a 5G and Edge Technology Development Center in Dallas, a major communications hub, at our DA11 data center. The Center team is helping incubate innovative ideas with leading companies who are looking to collaborate on open, interoperable, real-world architectures to deliver 5G Infrastructure and edge services.

Equinix DA11 Data Center

5G and edge are changing the network, forcing businesses to adapt

5G and edge will change the way businesses connect to the cloud and use edge services, bringing new use cases to market that enterprises and service providers will need to prove viable for themselves and their customers. Enterprises and network service providers will need to identify the best ways to adapt to and integrate 5G in their digital infrastructures on many different levels. Here are just a few ways that 5G will change the way network traffic flows:

• Bandwidth: 5G and edge use cases will increase the use of both public and private peering services as bandwidth grows.
• Access to cloud: 5G and edge will increase demand for cloud access as most mobile data traffic terminates in either a public or private cloud.
• IoT scaling: 5G and edge enable multi-gigabit speed and the ability to connect and collect data from millions of devices. This data deluge will increase demand for localized data collection and analysis in every major metro.
• Virtualizing and distributing the mobile network: Operators will need to re-architect their network to meet 5G and edge requirements and for access to the cloud ecosystem.

As traffic shifts to the edge, the physical infrastructure will look very different. 5G will require significant expansion in cell sites, radio control and data center footprints to enable this deployment. In addition, new physical aggregation points will be required to address latency and data throughput requirements. Also, the associated data management and application computational workloads will need to be distributed. Mobile network operators (MNOs) may look for direct cloud connection and functional support to create new revenue sources that can offset the costs to deploy and manage all this new equipment.

Equinix provides an ecosystem-enabled “sandbox” for customers to start on the right path toward 5G

Equinix is the largest provider of both peering services and cloud access, which already gives us a significant advantage in the race to adopt 5G. But it is our metro coverage of colocation and interconnection that will help our customers the most on their 5G journeys. In addition to increasing demand for interconnection, 5G and edge use cases will attract new and different partners into Equinix ecosystems, such as media companies, and healthcare and analytics providers. As more devices become connected, partnership with these companies will become more important.

The challenge right now is to figure out how everything and everyone will work together in this new 5G paradigm. To this end, the Equinix 5G and Edge Technology Development Center (5G and ETDC) in Dallas provides a rich ecosystem-enabled  5G and edge “sandbox” environment for MNOs, network and cloud providers, technology vendors and enterprises to co-ideate, incubate and innovate solutions on Platform Equinix™. This vendor-neutral environment allows service providers and enterprises to test, demonstrate and accelerate complex 5G and edge deployment and interoperability scenarios.

At the 5G ETDC, businesses will be able to leverage the Equinix DA11 data center, along with the following Equinix services such to build 5G-enabled digital infrastructure:

• Equinix Fabric™ for digital infrastructure connectivity to clouds and networks
• Equinix Connect and Equinix Internet Exchange™ for optimized internet connectivity and peering
• Equinix Metal™ for automated compute and storage services
• Network Edge secure connectivity to 5G Control Plane
• Equinix Precision Time™ for reliable, synchronous timing as a service

The following diagram illustrates the Equinix 5G ETDC Logical 5G Network digital infrastructure at Equinix DA11 in Dallas and Nokia CCH in Irving, Texas.

Architecture design by Oleg Berzin, Fellow, CTO’s Office

Dallas: A leading proving-ground for 5G and edge development

Equinix chose Dallas as the ideal strategic location for this innovative incubation, development and testing center for the following reasons:

• Major communications hub: The Dallas region is a major communications hub for the southern United States, with a high concentration of telecommunications companies. This ecosystem makes Dallas an ideal location for companies seeking to test and validate new 5G and Edge innovations.
• One of the largest enterprise and colocation markets: The Dallas metro represents one of the largest enterprise and colocation markets in the Americas. It also hosts nine Equinix International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers that house more than 135 network service providers—more than any other data center provider in the Dallas metro area.
• Proximity to companies in key industries: 5G ETDC is directly connected to the Equinix Infomart data center, the fifth-most-dense interconnection hub in the United States. These colocation facilities provide proximity to banking, commerce, telecommunications, computer technology, energy, healthcare and medical research, transportation and logistics companies in the metro area.
• Major interconnection point for LatAm: Dallas is a major interconnection point for Latin America traffic with key terrestrial routes serving Central and South America within the LATAM digital corridor. According to the Global Interconnection Index (GXI) Volume 4, enterprise consumption of interconnection bandwidth is expected to grow by 63% CAGR in LatAm by 2022 and will contribute up to 11% of interconnection bandwidth globally.
• MNO and TSP research hub: There is a high concentration of research facilities serving mobile network operators and technology platform service providers (TSPs) in Dallas, providing numerous opportunities for collaboration.

The Equinix 5G and Edge Technology Data Center is an important step in any digital leader’s journey to becoming a future-ready business. It demonstrates our commitment to helping our customers be as prepared as possible for their own 5G and Edge journeys. Are you ready to take this journey with us? Learn more about the Equinix data centers in Dallas.