Making Edge Computing a Commercial Reality Today
Please note Virtuosys was acquired by Veea Inc on June 8th 2018 and is now Veea Systems Ltd.
The wireless industry is increasingly accepting the limitations of the current model for cloud services and turning its attention instead to the benefits offered by shifting processing and storage to the network edge – providing the ability to operate stand-alone networks when connections to the internet cannot be guaranteed, when high-performance and low-latency are essential or when the existing connectivity costs are excessive
At the same time, edge devices are becoming increasingly sophisticated with the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), which is currently estimated to number some 31 billion connected items worldwide by 2020. The result is an exponential growth in the generation of real-world data. This requires cost-effective edge processing to avoid consuming ever-increasing amounts of bandwidth that will ultimately overload conventional networks. Furthermore, cloud services are poorly suited to distributed environments like those seen in smart transit or vehicles.
Veea Systems’ Veea Hub solution offers an answer, redefining the traditional perception of the edge and providing an application platform which dramatically changes the economics and efficiency of delivering Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC). Based in Bath, UK, the company was launched as Virtuosys until its acquisition into the Veea group in June 2018.
Veea Hub
Classically, the network edge reaches as far as the base station. But the Veea Hub takes compute power as close to the end point as possible – be it in a train carriage, retail outlet, the factory floor or on the streets of a smart city. In addition to a local edge mesh network which continues operating even when not connected to the internet, the Hub offers a transport agnostic network that works over any wireless or wired protocol. It allows management of services at the edge via a white label app store, whilst an open development architecture allows both companies and 3rd Party app developers to design and deploy apps specific to their own needs in the cloud, at the edge, or a combination of both. The distributed compute platform, meanwhile, increases the coverage and compute power each time an edge Server is added to the Mesh meaning that as apps grow in complexity the resources to run them will always be available
The Hub can be deployed in any environment – from industrial IoT, to Smart Cities, to retail. It also delivers an infinite range of application services specific to a customer’s needs, from public/private Wi-Fi, payment processing and employee messaging in retail environments to hosting cached media databases and collecting essential maintenance data in a smart rail environment. In every situation, the Veea Hub can give customers a competitive edge in things that matter: performance, security, resilience and cost.
The promise of edge computing in the wireless industry has been well documented, and in particular how it will play a key role in enabling a wide range of innovative IoT services. However, to date, actual rollouts have been few and far between. The Veea Hub provides these benefits today and can be rapidly deployed. For mobile operators, this will help overcome the challenges of coverage and capacity, particularly in scenarios such as IoT, with a technology that can be deployed today and integrated into their existing network offerings.
Veea Systems has already become established in the Smart Rail market, having been selected by the UK’s Department for Transport for a rail innovation project working with Angel Trains. Together, the two companies are demonstrating the power of edge computing solutions by providing improved onboard services while enabling IoT technologies that deliver new capabilities and applications for passengers, rail staff and the operators.
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The GSM Association (“Association”) makes no representation, warranty or undertaking (express or implied) with respect to and does not accept any responsibility for, and hereby disclaims liability for the accuracy or completeness or timeliness of the information contained in this document.