LEC-7242: Making Edge Computing Available In Remote Areas - Lanner Electronics | Network Appliance | uCPE SD-WAN| MEC Server | Intelligent Edge Appliance

Introduction

In order to build the largest edge cloud network in rural environments, network-as-a-service providers utilize edge computing and wireless technology to bring the capabilities and advantages of the cloud with IoT and AI to the remote and hard-to-reach rural areas. Such ambitious undertaking demanded open, scalable, and programmable network and edge gateways as these edge compute platforms may be deployed in SDN/NFV, AIoT/IIoT (Artificial Intelligence of Things / Industrial Internet of Things) and separate 5G infrastructure.

Various elements are involved when trying to deliver edge computing at remote areas and they are as followed:

1. Data collection via connected IoT or IIoT devices
2. Preliminary real-time data analysis via an IoT gateway
3. Secondary real-time data analysis (AI or MV) via an edge computer
4. Latency-free network transmission to private/public clouds

Service providers for rural edge computing need to establish an intelligent edge platform that directs connectivity from remote sites to the Cloud and provides the right environment for computing, network, and storage services across an extensive edge network. This platform enables not only a central portal for managing/fine-tuning all edge assets but also the capability for automating infrastructure (such as Lanner’s edge appliances) and for deploying applications with orchestration services.

Lanner Solutions

Lanner’s edge hardware platforms are the ideal hardware solutions for carrying out the aforementioned tasks as they are designed for SDN and IIoT infrastructure in private LTE and 5G networks.

NCR-1510: The NCR-1510 is a wide-temperature fan-less network appliance optimized for SD-WAN or uCPE. Service providers will be capable of deploying SD-WAN services in demanding environments such as farms and energy plants. NCR-1510 can integrate with LTE/WiFi module PGN300 and PGN600, to support commercial LTE and/or private LTE/CBRS bands.

LEC-7242: The LEC-7242 is an industrial wireless gateway with Intel® Apollo Lake CPU and FCC/CE/PTCRB certification for LTE/WiFi. The device is a small form factor device designed for IoT/IIoT edge and wireless security.

LEC-2290: The LEC-2290 is an intelligent edge computing box PC and AI platform with support for Intel® Core i7-8700T/i7-8700. This appliance is rich in I/O, and it is designed explicitly for compute-intensive AI-powered video analytics in the network edge. The LEC-2290 can perform various computer vision algorithms to improve applications in rural areas such as physical security and crop monitoring.

Benefits

In short, the fruition of  this collaboration is succeeding in deploying cloud computing capabilities in rural and remote areas so that cloud-native workloads and applications can be run and managed efficiently via 5G edge networks with the following benefits:

1. 5G connectivity with reduced latency: time-sensitive information such as precision agriculture, and big data collection/analytics/transmission could take place by bringing “cloud” computing capabilities closer to the end-users at the “edge”.
2. Security Enhancement: almost all data-crunching, storage, and transmission take place within the edge on-site, the network is more secured as a result as public networks are largely bypassed when transmitting and receiving data to a remote data center.
3. Reliability Improvement: having the IoT devices and edge computing infrastructure closer to the end-user equates fewer network hops and far fewer chances of failure. Not to mention that network outages at the edge could be spotted and dealt with more promptly.

Result/Conclusion

Resource-intensive applications and workloads in rural areas for agriculture and energy industries are now possible by Lanner’s edge hardware platforms, namely the NCR-1510, LEC-7242, and LEC-2290 not only process compute-intensive workloads at the edge but also providing wireless connectivity.

Other viable scenarios for edge cloud deployment are:

1. Precision agriculture and/or smart agriculture.
2. Industrial automation for rural deployments.
3. Rural video surveillance.
4. Healthcare in rural areas or telemedicine.
5. Digital oilfield applications.

These industries would benefit from having access to complete network automation, virtualized overlay fabric, network slicing and segmentation, not to mention visibility and insights into IIoT and IoT networks.

Related Articles

• Lanner Electronics Partners with Trilogy Networks to Join the Rural Cloud Initiative
• Lanner Takes Part in the “Farm of the Future” Project to Enable Edge Compute Technology in Rural Areas.
• Edge Computing Expands the Spectrum of the Cloud to Rural Areas

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