Data centres in a 5G era

Meanwhile, the UK government is pushing back against planning authorities that are attempting to halt the installation of 5G masts, with a spokesperson for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) expressing the government’s commitment to 5G, highlighting the economic benefits of the roll-out.

Even as the first 5G services are starting to go live, however, there are still many questions that remain unanswered. To ask how fifth generation networks will affect life inside the data centre, therefore, is similar to asking how a city would stand up to a natural disaster. It depends on the city and the storm.

Moving to the edge

We now know enough about 5G to know that it will without doubt change how data centres are designed and, in some cases, will even alter the role that they play in the larger network. From a technical standpoint, 5G will have several defining characteristics.

The most obvious of these is the use of the 5G New Radio (NR) air interface. Exploiting modern spectrums and providing latency capabilities in just milliseconds, this enhanced performance will drive the deployment of billions of edge-based connected devices. It will also create the need for flexible user-centric networks, pushing the compute and storage resources closer to both users and the devices.

The only way to meet these ultra-reliable, low latency requirements will be to deploy edge nodes as mesh networks, with an east-to-west flow and parallel data paths. In some cases, these nodes may be big enough to classify as pod-type data centres or micro data centres in their own right, similar to those being used by both telecom and cable providers.

Preparing for disruption

Cloud-scale data centres – as well as larger, enterprise facilities – may be the only ones to see just some impact of this move. They are already using distributed processing and have been designed to deal with increased data flow from the edge. At the other end of the scale, retail multi-tenant data centres (MTDCs) will likely incur the most disruption, as they have traditionally grown in response to rising demand for cloud-scale services.

The biggest changes, however, will be seen among service providers. As they begin to refine their relationship between core data centres and evolving centralised RAN (CRAN) hubs, adaptation will become a choice of sink or swim. Increasing virtualisation of the core networks and the radio-access networks will be key when it comes to handling the anticipated 5G data flow. This will also enable service providers to be more flexible with compute and storage capacity, easily moving it to where is most needed.

More broadly across service provider networks, increasing virtualisation may have a more direct effect in the core data centre, with wireless and wireline networks becoming more converged. This will generate an even stronger business case for a single physical layer infrastructure, it then just depends on the degree of convergence that occurs between the core network and the RAN. Whether this occurs in a central office or in a data centre, we still don’t know.

The role of new tech

Aside from considering cloud models, we also need to focus on the impact that new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) will have on data centres when 5G makes its mark. These technologies will not only require accelerated server speeds, but also higher network capacity to enable greater volume of growing edge services. When building these data models, processing vast data pools will be essential which, in most cases, are best suited to core data centre capabilities.

Most of the data that goes on to develop AI models will come from the edge. This nods to a potential shift in how more established, cloud-scale data centres will support the network. One potential use-case involves using the power of the core data centre to assemble data from the edge to develop the AI models. These would then be pushed out to deliver localised, low-latency services. The process would then be repeated, in turn creating a feedback loop that revolutionises the operating model.

A balancing act

As with any other aspect of digital transformation, the level and requirement of change within various data centre environments will depend on the individual application. Data streams generated by the billions of sensors and devices may well produce a steady flow of data, whereas others might be delivered intermittently or in irregular bursts. Either way, it’s very much out of our control. It’s how the data is then collected, processed and analysed that needs to be optimised, considering factors such as how much data should remain local to the edge device, and how much should be processed in the core centre?

Once these questions are answered, network engineers need to determine the best way to move the data through the network. Different latency and reliability requirements require the ability to prioritise data traffic at a very granular level. What can be off-loaded onto the internet via local Wi-Fi versus having to be backhauled to the cloud service provider (CSP) data centre?  And remember, edge networks must fit into a financial model that makes it profitable. 

Infrastructure as an enabler

The widespread roll-out of 5G is still a few years away, but there is no better time to start preparing for what’s to come. At the very core of this evolution, infrastructure must adapt to support higher wireless bandwidth and more universal data usage. Behind closed doors, organisations and building owners are considering more than just Wi-Fi to enable robust and dependable in-building mobile wireless with distributed antenna systems (DAS). Outdoors, it’s a different story. Service providers are upgrading and expanding their fiber networks to carry wireless data back to the core of the network, or in many cases, to edge data centres.

What we really need to think about, is the applications and innovations that these changes will develop as part of a 5G era more broadly. Self-driving cars, facial recognition, smart cities and industrial automation will all be made possible and more advanced by 5G. The problem remains, however, that each of these applications all have a varied set of requirements regarding reliability, latency, and the type/volume of data traffic generated. Unless you therefore understand the parameters of the situation, it’s difficult to pinpoint it’s exact impact on the data centre.

Something we do know, however, is that the avalanche of new data from the network edge, and thanks to 5G, goes hand-in-hand with high compute and storage power. Exactly how much power? You guessed it: that depends!