Telstra shows off edge compute in Barcelona

Telstra, Ericsson and Microsoft have used Mobile World Congress 2022 in Barcelona to announce customer trials of a 5G-enabled edge compute solution.

The 5G software defined WAN (SD-WAN) solution provides private connectivity over 5G to storage, network and marketplace services hosted in the network edge.

Telstra said it is working with construction company FKG Group to “co-develop the enterprise application solutions to be offered, and testing the resiliency and scaling in order to accommodate different enterprise footprints”.

Telstra’s edge solution combines the carrier’s fixed and 5G connectivity, with Microsoft’s Azure Stack Edge providing compute and SD-WAN, while Ericsson provides service orchestration through its Cradlepoint platform.

“Our global collaboration now extends to our enterprise customers, and we are applying a real focus on the use of these advanced technologies to solve customer and industry operational problems”, Telstra's group executive for network and IT Nikos Katinakis said.

The end-to-end solution will be offered as a managed service from Telstra Purple.

“Our collaboration with Telstra enables the FKG Group to use applications such as AI, Robotics and AR to unlock data-driven insights and transparency across our operation," FKG Group's head of innovation and growth Grant Statton said.

"The edge solution gives our teams the opportunity to collaborate and make decisions in real-time across different worksites to deliver projects on time and within budget.”

Telstra also used MWC 2022 to also demonstrate 5.9 Gbps downloads over a mmWave mobile connection, using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X65 5G modem and its FastConnect 6900 subsystem, along with an Ericsson radio system and connectivity software.