This blog is co-authored by Pratik Sarkar.
We all dream about finding technologies that can trigger ways to generate new revenue opportunities. Better yet, discovering the product that can easily and quickly add new functionalities and can do it all without complex systems and the need to spend time and money constantly upgrading.
With the Dell PowerEdge XR8000 designed for simplicity, efficiency and flexibility, we can help you get closer to achieving this dream.
The PowerEdge XR8000 is a game-changer, seamlessly enabling Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC), artificial intelligence (AI) and User Plane Function (UPF) capabilities, among others, to enable myriad functionalities at the edge. With MEC, the XR8000 brings computational power closer to the data source, reducing latency and enhancing the user experience for applications like autonomous vehicles, smart cities and industrial automation. Its AI prowess empowers businesses to deploy intelligent analytics, inferencing and machine learning models directly at the edge, ensuring real-time decision-making and operational efficiency. For UPF workloads, it can help streamline data traffic management in 5G networks, optimizing network performance and reliability. Together, these features position the PowerEdge XR8000 as an essential tool for organizations aiming to stay ahead in the fast-evolving digital landscape, offering a robust solution that is both future-proof and adaptable to the most demanding edge computing environments.
Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC)
By using MEC and bringing processing power closer to where data is generated, communications service providers (CSPs) can unlock a plethora of new opportunities for businesses, from enhanced real-time analytics to improved IoT applications. This strategic move not only leverages the ultra-low latency and high bandwidth capabilities of 5G but also opens new revenue streams by offering innovative solutions that drive digital transformation across various industries.
According to STL research, the MEC addressable market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 48% to $445 billion in 2030. MEC can play a major role in industries like manufacturing, gaming and entertainment, healthcare and public utilities, covering a plethora of use cases.
Fig 1: Value of edge use cases (by size of total addressable market); Source
Implementing MEC involves collaboration of multiple players in the ecosystem, from CSPs to infrastructure vendors to third-party application vendors. Success of a MEC solution depends on the effectiveness of the MEC hardware at the edge and the third-party MEC applications critical for specific industry verticals. The good news is that Dell Technologies is an expert in the enterprise.
With its unique sled-based architecture, Dell’s PowerEdge XR8000 offers a compute infrastructure for the MEC platform that can be used to host the MEC applications. Its capability to support L4 GPUs, best-in-class Network Interface Cards and 12 years of support after purchase enables better ROI for customers. Some of the major applications are gaming, video surveillance and content delivery networks.
To meet the hardware requirements of MEC, the XR8000 checks all the boxes a provider wants. It is a ruggedized platform (NEBS level 3 Certification) with short depth which ensures it can be deployed with confidence in an edge environment. The XR8000 offers dense compute, is simple to deploy and provides a secure cyber secure platform for customer data at the edge.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
The increasing demands of AI in the telecommunications sector underscore the necessity for edge computing solutions that are fortified with advanced GPUs, higher core counts and enhanced thermal design power (TDP). The global edge AI market is experiencing rapid growth, with its size estimated at $20.39 billion in 2023 and projected to reach $186.44 billion by 2032, representing a CAGR of 27.5% from 2024 to 2032. The excitement around the latest AI capabilities for telcos—dramatically improved operations and open windows for new services—requires leveraging a server platform that is designed to support AI in telecom networks.
AI at the edge is a combination of two emerging technologies: edge computing and artificial intelligence. Edge computing helps to process the data at the edge, and AI adds business intelligence to the processed data for business insights. The impressive benefits of AI at the edge are improved bandwidth efficiency—as there is no need to send the data back to the core— reduced latency, enhanced security and lower operational cost. The benefits are complemented by lower data transfer volume to the cloud and real-time data processing while maintaining data integrity and security.
Dell XR8000 supports the latest Intel Xeon CPUs, and its ability to host NVIDIA L4 GPUs makes it a ruggedized AI-capable server for the edge. In fact, it can host up to six L4 GPUs in a 2U form factor, making it an AI and GenAI powerhouse of computing to supercharge computer vision, inference performance and data analytics.
The key differentiating factor for the XR8000 for AI is its capacity to run multiple AI workloads on a single chassis, enabling CSPs to get better ROI and diversifying its deployment to different AI telco workloads. Its compute-dense flexible sled-based architecture will allow CSPs to enable emerging AI capabilities faster and deploy solutions with confidence and ease.
The key industry verticals that can be targeted with XR8000 as an AI server are automotive, manufacturing, healthcare, energy and telecom.
User Plane Function (UPF)
5G outperforms 4G deployments in speed, reliability and low latency and introduces many new use services. Although RAN plays a key role in helping 5G achieve these, decomposition of 5G core into control and use planes (CUPS) allows CSPs to deploy UPF at various locations and platforms. Distributed User Plane Function (D-UPF) leverages this and gives CSPs an opportunity to place UPF near to the edge where data is generated. This will help CSPs to diversify revenue streams, charge premium for differentiated services and reduce backhaul networking cost.
The below image depicts the positioning of UPF to cater to demanding workloads.
The UPF is best hosted in a commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) platform and can leverage the benefits that cloudification and virtualization brings. Deployment of edge UPF requires a hardware platform that is ruggedized for the edge. XR8000 is a NEBS level 3 certified platform, and its ability to withstand temperatures from -20C to 65C makes it one of the most viable platforms for D-UPF.
With the XR8000’s hot pluggable sled-based architecture, it offers redundancy in compute and power. It is a platform of choice for CSPs for D-UPF.
The PowerEdge XR8000 is a technological champion and the most optimized edge server platform. It fortifies MEC by bringing computing power closer to the data source, reducing latency and boosting real-time processing. Its robust design to support formidable AI and GenAI capabilities empowers intelligent data analysis and decision-making at the edge, igniting innovation across diverse industries. For UPF, the XR8000 ensures seamless data routing and network traffic management, essential for 5G deployments. Unleash the hero within the PowerEdge XR8000 and unlock new revenue streams at the edge.
