7 Layers: Verizon Drives 5G Across Ops

Andrea Caldini, VP of network engineering at Verizon, has seen a lot of wireless technology evolution during her 20 years at the telecom giant. This includes that carrier’s initial 3G launch based on CDMA technology, its radical move to 4G LTE more than a decade ago, and its more recent push into 5G. “I remember at some point thinking 64 kb/s was really fast,” Caldini joked during an interview with SDxCentral. Caldini cited Verizon’s early 5G work, including its early work toward 5G standards that were initially outside of the normal standards bodies. Verizon has also been able to inject a lot more spectrum into its 5G services based on that technology standards ability to support larger “chunks” of spectrum. Caldini cited the carrier’s extensive millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum holdings that support significant capacity and its ongoing deployment of its C-Band spectrum that is providing a broader reach. As part of that push, Verizon itself has been able to expand those network updates broadly across the organization, including into its Verizon Business Group. That group has been a driver of Verizon’s recent business operations. Verizon 5G and the Private, MEC Space That work has also begun to spread more into the private 5G space, which Caldini said is a “huge opportunity here,” and the is “a gateway into mobile edge compute.” Verizon’s MEC efforts include agreements with all three major hyperscalers – Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) – to provide optionality to enterprises. This allows the carrier to support two deployment models: private MEC and public MEC. The private MEC path involves an on-premises device deployment that allows an enterprise to maintain total control over its data. The carrier runs this on top of its agreement with AWS, Microsoft, and GCP. The public MEC work taps into nearly 20 locations where Verizon is collocated with the hyperscalers. This model is one Verizon executives have previously stated provide a connection point to within 150 miles of most enterprises. “As you’re creating these solutions, you’re looking to have your workloads closer, so you might have a low-latency need and need to have that workload closer,” Caldini said, adding that this private and public MEC integration then allows an enterprise to adjust where they want to run applications and still have it all under strict control. “They all come together as you create these new services to support a business need.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices