What is Intel® Smart Edge?

Intel® Smart Edge is a portfolio of software offerings that delivers optimized solutions using Intel® architecture for customers across a wide range of industries. 

In this blog, you'll learn more about Intel® Smart Edge and how it can help quickly and efficiently deploy edge-centric networks, compute capabilities, and workload convergence.

What is Intel® Smart Edge?

By 2025, it is estimated that 75 percent of data will be generated outside of data centers. Computing that is currently performed over public networks or in large, centralized data centers increases latency, cost, and attack surface for cybercriminals. 

Intel® Smart Edge is software that delivers performant and optimized networking, artificial intelligence (AI), and security applications both on-premises and at the network edge. 

Run on Intel® Architecture, Smart Edge delivers optimized performance through enhanced security, simplified networking, workload convergence, and ease of use. 

Users are provided with a flexible software that helps them easily onboard and manage applications and network functions at the edge.

Smart Edge provides tailored applications to simplify network complexity that can be run and managed anywhere. (More on that later.) 

For example, a tailored, private wireless network can come with a 5G core network, edge node, and radio access network (RAN), ready to use and prevalidated to accelerate time to market. 

Some of the primary benefits of Intel® Smart Edge include: 

1. Lower latency and higher throughput for end users of the network
2. Higher security due to data locality and attributes 
3. Locality-driven context for clients and applications
4. Lower operational costs through the reduction in backhaul traffic
5. Lower capital costs through workload consolidation and network function virtualization

Intel® Smart Edge Capabilities

At its core, Intel® Smart Edge supports and optimizes critical workloads and capabilities in networking, artificial intelligence, and security that are essential for running applications at the edge. 

Lets' take a look at the main features of each capability: 

Networking

1. Deploy a completely private wireless system with integrated 5G RAN, 5G core, and enterprise applications. 
2. Build O-RAN (open RAN) compliant access edge platforms with containerized network functions enabled by FlexRAN software.
3. Implement your telecommunications edge cloud with containerized network functions for the 5G control plane and user plane. 

Artificial intelligence (AI)

1. Easily onboarding your AI applications on any edge.
2. Optimize your AI algorithms with the Intel® Distribution of OpenVINO toolkit.
3. Jump start commercial AI solutions with reference implementations from the Intel® Edge Software hub for a variety of IoT applications. 

Security

1. Implement zero trust security with advanced Intel® security frameworks.
2. Get platform integrity with secure boot, measured boot, platform attestation, and secure onboarding. 
3. Run your secure workloads in trusted execution environments and secure enclaves. 
4. Implement data confidentiality at rest, in motion, and in use. 

At its core, Intel® Smart Edge supports and optimizes critical workloads and capabilities in networking, artificial intelligence, and security necessary for running applications at the edge. 

Intel® Smart Edge Open

Intel® Smart Edge Open is a software toolkit composed of modular building blocks combined to address the needs of specific edge locations and workloads. 

Edge platforms are resource-constrained compared to cloud platforms, requiring higher network performance and more autonomy, have strong hardware affinity, and face significantly more threat vectors. 

Smart Edge Open addresses these challenges by allowing users to speed up the development of edge solutions that host network functions along with AI and security workloads. 

With Intel® Smart Edge Open, users can: 

1. Accelerate time to market: Reduce cost and performance risks associated with developing cloud-native networking platforms by using reference architecture optimized for Intel® hardware.
2. Easily establish a 5G network: Run compute-intensive workloads at the edge at 5G speeds. 
3. Simplify complex network architectures: Deploy reference architectures for common use cases and edge locations.

New edge locations are emerging as prime candidates for compute workloads that can deliver capabilities and experiences previously not possible. 

These locations are: 

1. The on-premises edge, which is typically located in an enterprise. 
2. The access edge, which is located at or near a 5G base station. 
3. The near edge, which is the aggregation point hosting a distributed UPF (user plane function). 
4. The regional data center, which hosts a next generation center office with wireless wireline convergence. 

Smart Edge allows users to create platforms for these emerging edge locations; users can also add specific capabilities into their own platform, or they can start with a tailored offering and customize it to their own needs. 

Intel® Smart Edge Commercial Software

Intel® Smart Edge Commercial Software is a turnkey edge platform with a single controller and multiple nodes, backed by enterprise software and support. 

This ready-to-go software can deploy applications with a single click, automate operations, and better user experience from a single console. 

Smart Edge Open Commercial Software brings communications and compute power to the edge, connecting both wired and wireless networks.

Users can choose to place multiple nodes at one site, or one node at multiple sites. Irrespective of location, all nodes report back to the Smart Edge Controller. 

Intel® Smart Edge and Trenton's IES 5G

Equipped with Intel^® Smart Edge Software, Trenton's IES 5G solution deploys private wireless networks with integrated 5G RAN, 5G Core, and enterprise applications.

Smart Edge has virtual, containerized network functions for 5G control planes and user planes to help implement telecommunications edge clouds.

Containerized network functions use less memory and disk space, carving up applications into smaller units called microservices and store them inside containers. This allows applications that require lots of expensive hardware to start faster, as the amount of hardware is reduced through containerization. 

Private wireless networks and containerized network functions help to streamline and scale the deployment of network functions and 5G services, enabling data to be communicated without interference from network overload or unauthorized access.

Smart Edge also includes zero-trust security, secure boot, and data confidentiality for maximum protection of critical data. Workloads can be run in trusted execution environments and secure enclaves, protecting data-at-rest, data-in-transit, and data-in-use.

With enhanced networking and security features, Intel® Smart Edge optimizes critical capabilities to develop and deploy a genuinely resilient solution that can operate across a wide range of environments. 

Equipped with Intel^® Smart Edge Software, Trenton's IES 5G solution deploys private wireless networks with integrated 5G RAN, 5G Core, and enterprise applications. 

Conclusion

Intel® Smart Edge allows users to optimize networking, artificial intelligence, and security at the edge, for every edge. 

Customers can add Smart Edge capabilities into their own platforms, or customize a Smart Edge solution according to their needs, free from the hastles of utilizing a large public network or centralized data center. 

At Trenton, we implement next-gen Intel® processors and security features across our USA-made, customized, high-performance computing solutions. 

Our BAM rack mount servers and TAC small form factor mission computers, for example, support 3rd Gen Xeon® Scalable Processors and Xeon® D Processors, respectively, enhancing throughput, data analytics, and inferencing. 

The IES 5G solution utilizes Intel® Smart Edge to enable real-time, local data analysis by bringing server and data-center capabilities such as computing power and network bandwidth onto computing devices. 

With Intel® architecture and security-conscious technology, we empower our military, commercial, and industrial customers with low-latency, cost-effective solutions to deliver peak performance at the strategic, tactical, and operational levels. 

Interested in learning more about 5G? Check out some other key 5G technologies that enhance compute architectures here.

• "What is Intel® SmartEdge?" - Intel®