Three new cities — Atlanta, New York and Washington, DC — have been added to the list of locations where businesses and developers can build and deploy applications with AWS Wavelength at Verizon’s 5G Edge. Verizon and AWS launched the mobile edge computing (MEC) platform, which shortens the roundtrip data needs to travel by moving processing closer to the end user, last month in Boston and the Bay Area. The plan is to add five more cities by the end of 2020.
By moving AWS compute and storage services to the edge of Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network, say the companies, innovators can develop applications with ultra-low latencies that will support next generation use cases ranging from self-driving cars to autonomous industrial equipment.
One company, YBVR, is testing how 5G and AWS Wavelength can be used to stream live 8K Ultra HD (UHD) video to sports fans and concert goers, allowing simultaneous users to choose various camera views with ultra-low latency.
“Leveraging the powerful combination of Verizon 5G and AWS Wavelength will enable us to put the ‘fan in control’,” said Sebastian Amengual, YBVR co-founder and CTO. “With 5G and MEC, fans should be able to enjoy 8K live streams on mobile and XR devices in real-time and have their own, personalized watching experience which was not feasible before.”
YBVR is just one of a number of companies highlighted by Verizon as it extends its MEC capabilities. CrowdVision is testing how 5G and AWS Wavelength can provide the throughput and low latency needed for pedestrian movement detection. Using video or LiDAR and artificial intelligence, live data can be provided for a number of scenarios including crowd congestion, traffic flows and venue wait times. And Zixi is using the MEC platform to test live and live-linear 4K and 8K broadcast media workflows for 5G production implementations.
“Watching businesses build transformational applications on the world’s first 5G mobile edge computing platform with AWS Wavelength shows how our 5G Ultra Wideband network matters to customers TODAY and is already impacting how businesses operate and consumers live, work and play,” said Tami Erwin, CEO of Verizon Business. “When it comes to innovating on 5G and MEC, we’re only scratching the surface.”
