It will be used to test and validate various 5G services and use cases. Equinix says it is helping service providers and network operators bring “innovative concepts” to market by providing an agile production framework for assessing, incubating and testing 5G and edge solutions for end-to-end secure applications.
The 5G and Edge Technology Development Center - located at the Equinix DA11 International Business Exchange data centre in Dallas - brings together select ecosystem participants to develop edge solutions by providing a production-ready interconnection sandbox environment, from the radio network to the cloud.
Mobile network operators, cloud platforms, technology vendors and enterprises are coming together at Equinix to test, demonstrate and accelerate complex 5G and edge services to be used by enterprise customers.
Equinix Fabric directly, securely and dynamically connects distributed infrastructure and digital ecosystems on the Platform Equinix data centre network. Customers can establish data centre-to-data centre network connections on-demand between any two Equinix Fabric locations within a metro or globally via software-defined interconnections.
“As we look to a future where 5G is ubiquitous, the way that IP traffic moves between networks around the world will change completely, and interconnected data centres will play a crucial role in this new 5G-dominated future,” said Sean Hemphill, VP of webscale business at Nokia.
“Equinix’s approach to digital infrastructure enables access to a large ecosystem of end users and service providers,” said Hemphill. “Nokia IP solutions underpin Equinix Fabric, providing seamless interconnection between its global data centres, and allowing customers to test real-world 5G and edge deployments.”
The 5G and Edge Technology Development Center will initially focus on mobile hybrid multi-cloud connectivity, network slicing, distributed artificial intelligence and machine learning, enablement and orchestration of infrastructure, augmented and virtual reality and gaming.
“As companies develop new 5G technologies and services they need a real-world environment to test and bring their concepts to life,” said Justin Dustzadeh, CTO at Equinix. “With our rich ecosystem of service providers, partners and clouds, our Technology Development Center is an ideal place to fully test their concepts in a real way, enabling them to bring new capabilities to market, accelerate adoption and deliver new revenue streams faster.”
