Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1284149
October/November/December 2020 I 37 Latency, which is essentially the time it takes for data to traverse a network to its destination, is measured in mil- liseconds (ms). Due to the way data travels from switch to switch to server and back again, latency is unavoidable and varies based on the transmission medium, distance, number of switch hops and overall efficiency of the infra- structure and equipment. While 50 to 200 ms to ping Google or 10 seconds to load a web page is something most people are used to, there is no place for latency when it comes to supporting next-generation 5G, inter- net of things (IoT) and industrial internet of things (IIoT) technologies like self-driving vehicles, smart traffic sys- tems, virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence (AI), machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, enhanced video streaming and online gaming. A self-driving car needs to be able to respond virtually instantaneously to smart traffic signals and road sensors, and M2M devices rely on guaranteed response times and real-time processing of data. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) studies indicate the aver- age reaction time of a human in traffic is around 1 to 2 seconds. For self-driving vehicles to be safe and reliable and to gain consumer confidence, they require 5G's 5 ms latency, which is practically real time. One part of the solution to reducing latency lies in edge computing that brings IT and cloud-based services closer to end users and devices, which is why there is rapid growth in the deployment of edge data centers (EDCs) closer to the source of the data being processed—any- where from the central office, 5G cell tower or local street corner, to the enterprise office, manufacturing facility or remote mining operation (Figure 1). According to Gartner, the global market for EDCs is projected to triple over the next five years with 75 percent of enterprise-generated data expected to be created and processed outside of traditional centralized data centers. Cloud Data Center Internet of Things Edge Data Center Data Processing (Storage, Capture, Reporting) Data Cashing (5G, E-commerce, Streaming) Data Analytics (Machine Learning, AI, M2M) FIGURE 1: Edge data centers are located closer to users and devices to support emerging low-latency applications.