MWC 2024: Private 5G Networks Take Center Stage
The transformative power of 5G was evident at this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC 2024), held in Barcelona, February 26-29. MWC is the leading event for the connectivity ecosystem, with themes spanning across 5G and beyond, connecting everything, humanizing artificial intelligence, and manufacturing digital transformation.
Intel and a number of its ecosystem partners at the event showcased how 5G provides new opportunities for innovation and intelligence at the network edge.
For example, to help businesses build on their advanced network and edge AI analytic use cases, Intel announced its new edge-native software platform at MWC 2024. Intel’s Edge Platform modular, open software platform enables enterprises to build, provision, deploy, and manage AI applications at scale. It features edge-native infrastructure management, edge-optimizing AI inference, and simplified solution management.
Private 5G Network Edge Advantage
Global IT services company Wipro showcased the power of Intel’s Edge Platform in an Industry 4.0 private 5G demonstration based on its OTNxT, an end-to-end platform for OT and IoT infrastructure. Together with its 5G and AI components and Intel’s Edge Platform, Wipro and Intel demonstrated how to develop and deploy 5G-enabled AI solutions at scale.
The Wipro and Intel demo also showcased high-performance, hybrid deployments using the Intel® Distribution of OpenVINO™ toolkit and the Intel® Geti™ platform, and how to deploy 5G private network solutions using Intel® FlexRan™ reference architecture APIs from Intel’s Edge Platform integration.
Private 5G solutions like these are becoming extremely important as demand for meaningful data grows. Many businesses turn to private 5G network solutions that can provide coverage, data control, and costs they need to support data-intensive applications at the network edge.
“Intel’s new Edge Platform helps us solve the challenges of edge complexity on standard hardware and enables Wipro to deliver the most compelling use cases to drive business results,” says Ashish Khare, General Manager and Global Head for IoT, 5G, and Smart Cities at Wipro.
Other use cases possible with the combined power of the Wipro OTNxT platform and Intel Edge Platform include assembly line automation, fleet management, cluster management, and application orchestration.
Many businesses turn to private #5G network solutions that can provide coverage, #data control, and costs they need to support data-intensive applications at the #NetworkEdge. Via @insightdottech
Also at the event was global computing intelligence company Lenovo, which shared how Intel’s Edge Platform with modular building blocks seamlessly integrated with Lenovo Open Cloud Automation and Lenovo xClarity for enhanced automation and manageability. The platform enables developers to build, deploy, run, manage, connect, and secure distributed edge infrastructure, applications, and edge AI. The platform is a horizontal approach to scaling needed infrastructure for the Intelligent Edge and Hybrid AI, as well as bringing together an ecosystem of Intel and third-party vertical applications.
“The integrated solution delivers a seamless experience combining truly edge-native capabilities for security, near zero-touch provisioning and management, with Intel and Lenovo’s deep industry experience and unrivaled ecosystems. And, with built-in OpenVINO runtime, it enables businesses to adapt edge and hybrid AI solutions across industry verticals,” says Charles Ferland, Vice President and General Manager of ThinkEdge and Communication Service Providers for Lenovo.
Sustainable Private Network Solutions with Network Edge Partners
Elsewhere on the show floor, Nokia, a technology leader across mobile, fixed, and cloud networks, showcased how it leveraged 4th Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors with Intel® vRAN Boost and the Intel® FlexRAN™ reference architecture to create the optimized form factor for private 5G solutions. This compact solution accelerates deployments across vertical markets while lowering capital expenditures (CapEx) and operating expenditures (OpEx).
IT provider Cisco was also at the event demonstrating how to deploy a private 5G solution for live video production. In its demonstration, it showcased how commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) platforms based on Intel technology can be used to live-broadcast a large sporting event.
Additional Intel partners at the event highlighting 5G capabilities included mission-critical intelligent systems software provider Wind River, telecom network solution provider Rakuten Symphony, IT technology company Supermicro, and 5G platform software-based company JMA Wireless.
To see what else you missed from the event and ecosystem partners, head over to the MWC Barcelona 2024 website.
This article was edited by Georganne Benesch, Editorial Director for insight.tech.