5G Network Edge Support Runs Deep!

STL Partners has named NETSCOUT as a top-edge computing company to watch in 2024. STL Partners’ selection of the top 100 edge companies alone is a statement of the business opportunity and complexity of 5G edge technology. This collection of recommended edge infrastructure vendors spans all things edge, from the compute resources to the routers, 5G edge applications and services, management tools, performance monitoring, analytics, and security solutions.

This large number of edge infrastructure vendors begs the question of how all this gear will work in concert to deliver high-quality edge services, and how mobile operators and enterprises will assure and secure the operation of this edge infrastructure as part of a greater 5G network solution. Agility and (cost-effective) rapid deployment of edge infrastructure and services is very desirable, but delivering high-quality services is ultimately the key to success here.

As communications service providers (CSPs) continue to roll out 5G, multi-access edge computing (MEC) and network slicing are making it possible to achieve low latency and high bandwidth with the super-fast connectivity services required to meet service and device demands. But to meet customer experience expectations, CSPs must have end-through-end visibility to continuously monitor for performance anomalies and stay aligned with service level agreement (SLA)-defined conditions.

Why NETSCOUT at the Edge?

NETSCOUT has developed a cost-effective, continuous latency-monitoring capability for the user plane at the 5G edge. With the move to the edge to provide lower latency and higher throughput (and the resulting move of intelligence closer to the devices and applications utilizing it), user experience becomes even more critical. This requirement has long been true for voice, video, and Wi-Fi, but always-on, ultra-latency-sensitive applications and devices take the need for continuous latency monitoring to the next level.

NETSCOUT has worked with numerous network equipment providers, including Ericsson, Nokia, Mavenir, and F-5, as well as all of the top hyperscalers, to provide visibility to IP traffic in the 5G cloudified network. One example of this effort is an industry-first data-processing and network-function-monitoring solution from Ericsson, Swisscom, and NETSCOUT that provides automatic access to packet data and the ability to analyze raw packet data. By enabling cloud-based packet data processing and network function monitoring, CSPs can dramatically enhance network service assurance, analytics, and cybersecurity.

Scalable 5G Performance and Network Monitoring

Because of the vast amounts and complexity of data gathered from traffic traversing networks, and the low latency required by 5G, slicing, and MEC, CSPs will need ways to analyze data that don’t rely on cumbersome human-based methods. NETSCOUT’s Omnis Analytics Automation solution harnesses 5G data packet intelligence at scale, creating what we call Smart Data. Leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning informed by network domain expertise, this automated analytics solution is perfectly suited to identifying issues that impact customer experience, as well as gathering critical insights into what services are working effectively and how customers are interacting with them.

NETSCOUT's scalable 5G performance and network monitoring solution, designed for hybrid and cloud-native environments, helps CSPs successfully deliver actionable insights into reliability and latency for 5G networks, applications, and services. Given the diverse choices for edge infrastructure, having third-party, independent visibility to the 5G edge infrastructure is a critical means for giving network operations and engineering teams the ability to ensure everything works together to provide the enterprise and subscribers the best solution for the money.

We are excited to be chosen as one of STL Partners’ top 100 edge computing companies to watch in 2024. Much work has gone into developing our observability solution for the edge, working with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and early adopters to ensure their edge deployments.

To learn more about NETSCOUT’s 5G network edge solutions in the STL Partners top 100 edge computing companies, click here.