Edge not well suited for 5G core functions: DSP Leaders World Forum poll result

• We polled our in-person and online attendees during the recent DSP Leaders World Forum 2022 event
• We ask which functions and apps are best suited to edge computing
• The responses contained some surprises, especially with regards to 5G core functionality

5G core functions are not well suited for deployment on edge computing platforms, according to the results of a poll that ran during the recent DSP Leaders World Forum 2022 event.

In-person and online attendees were asked: For which of these functions and/or applications is edge computing best suited?

Respondents could select as many of the options they thought were appropriate.

The results provided some surprises, as you can see from the chart above.

While it’s no great surprise that the vast majority (72%) of voters believe low-latency IoT applications, such as real-time video analytics, are well suited to edge computing deployments, and that private networks (47%) and metaverse applications (43%) were also deemed, what was very surprising was the very low score for 5G core functions and general enterprise functions, both of which received a vote from only 13% of voters.

It's particularly surprising that 5G core functions received such low support when 5G RAN functions were deemed suitable by 50% of respondents: Much of the discussion about 5G functionality and distributed edge platform deployments has been related to core rather than RAN functions to date.

The poll was highlighted during the DSP Leaders World Forum session titled Taking 5G to the Edge: You can watch that session on-demand here.

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV