The prevalent use cases that drive the need for deploying private wireless technology fall into the following categories:
- Private network and private mobility applications
- Digital transformation applications
Private network and private mobility applications
Private networks—Citizens Broadband Radio Service Devices (CBSDs), NR, path to 5G, enterprise networks, and so on—are driving the need to have MEC technology that is deployed as close to the radio as possible. Private 5G networks include Industrial Connectivity and Massive Machine to Machine Networks (MMTC).
Digital transformation applications
The trends among independent software vendors that also drive the need for deploying MEC technology include these use cases:
- Healthcare
- Private wireless at the edge can be used to aid healthcare edge computing in many ways, whether through virtualizing the edge, local storage and metadata extraction, or real-time location services. Healthcare facilities can now amortize platforms over any number of applications, offer more sustainable data management strategies, and enable intelligent interruptions based on real-time location and policy implementations.
- Industrial modernization (IIoT4.0)
- Through a comprehensive set of deployment and management tools, this software enables any manufacturer to establish a private 5G network inside their factory premises. Local hosting of applications provides sub-millisecond access to compute and storage within the premises by authorized devices.