AT&T is expanding its 5G standalone (SA) core network through “edge zones” that can more quickly connect to cloud service providers including Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

AT&T CTO Jeremy Legg noted in a blog post that the carrier currently has 10 of these edge zones up and running across the U.S., with plans to add at least two more of these “localized 5G network capabilities” before the end of the year. Many more will follow in 2023 and beyond.

These edge zones are powered by AT&T’s regional 5G SA network cores and are located near connection points that can quickly access cloud service provider data centers.  Legg explained AT&T will explore different options on how to make the edge zones accessible to developers, either through stores operated by hyperscale companies or SDKs.

The edge zones are based on three key elements:

• Local standalone network cores
• Local public cloud or private data center computing resources
• Software-defined network capabilities and virtualized network functions

AT&T commenced work on edge networks in 2021, when it previewed a network in conjunction with Microsoft Azure.

Alongside its SA 5G network, AT&T is employing local public cloud and private data centre resources, and software-defined network elements in its edge zones. It situated the capabilities in data centres close to facilities with connections to nearby cloud providers including Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and AWS.

An AT&T representative told Mobile World Live that Equinix is providing the cross-connect capabilities. Legg noted the edge zones enable AT&T to offer customised managed services. “It’s an exciting time for us.  We’re at the dawn of a new age of killer apps almost everywhere you look,” he concluded.

Jeremy Legg, AT&T CTO

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Separately, Bloomberg reports that AT&T is counting on U.S. government stimulus grants to help fund its fiber optic buildout.  The telco wants small towns to use federal economic recovery money to pay it to provide landline high-speed internet to rural and remote areas.

Evansville, Indiana is a showcase for how AT&T is working with local governments to reach people with little or no internet access.   While  Indiana is part of AT&T’s 21-state telecommunications service region, the company will soon announce a widening expansion into markets outside its traditional territory, according to people familiar with the plan who didn’t want to tip off competitors before the announcement. The first was Mesa, Ariz., where AT&T promised to deliver fiber connections to a market where it had offered only wireless service. That marked the first move in decades outside its existing footprint.

AT&T CEO Stankey’s seven-hour, six-stop tour in Indiana was focused on a public-private partnership, one of several in the region for AT&T. The contract with Vanderburgh County calls for the company to put $29.7 million toward building out fiber networks that will serve superfast broadband to at least 20,000 homes and businesses. An additional $9.9 million will come from the county’s American Rescue Plan money, an injection of federal funds to help with recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

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References:

https://www.att.com/es-us/sdabout/blogs/2022/legg-5g-edge-zones.html

AT&T taps regional SA 5G cores for edge networks

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-18/at-t-t-eyes-stimulus-dollars-for-internet-service-push

Jeremy Legg, AT&T’s new chief technology officer (replacing Andre Fuetsch), said historically the wired networks of copper and fiber were operated separately from the wireless network, but AT&T is converging wired and wireless in municipalities across the country. It’s also in the process of deploying its 5G standalone core via Microsoft Azure public cloud.

Unlike previous generations of wireless core technology, AT&T is going to distribute the core software at sites around the country. “We want to federate where those cores sit,” said Legg. “Cores have historically only been in a very few locations. We’re trying to put them in a lot more locations.”

Legg said a distributed 5G core SA network is important for voice applications, where it’s nice to keep calls geographically close. And it could be really important in the future for uses such as autonomous cars. The company isn’t quantifying how many locations it might ultimately put 5G SA core software. “It’s really a function of what the demand curve looks like,” said Legg. “We could put a core in 1,000 edges.”

The company has thousands of central offices all around the country. A select number of these central offices are already running its 5G SA core software.

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Chris Sambar, AT&T’s executive vice president for Network, said the company spends “well over a billion dollars per year on power.”

Sambar described how AT&T had moved from proprietary equipment for its central offices to off-the-shelf compute servers that run networking software, which AT&T Labs developed. AT&T has since sold this software to Microsoft, which is free to resell it to other telcos around the world.

AT&T still keeps all its network functions on its own premises at central offices, running with its version of its network software. The company has a few hundred of these AIC cloud pods around the country.

Sambar said, “Now we have this disaggregated architecture where we can control everything in the box. There’s a lot more flexibility in the network to mix and match. And we continue to make iterations on top.  AT&T uses public cloud providers for its less-sensitive storage and compute functions.

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Joe Mosele, vice president for Mobility, IoT and 5G, said, AT&T is the leader in IoT in the U.S., based on the number of its IoT connections. It has 95.9 million connected devices and more than 53.3 million connected cars on the AT&T network. China is the IoT leader in the world.

Sidebar:  5G SA Advantages and Challenges:

5G  Standalone (SA) networks offer lower latency, the ability to connect a huge number of devices at once, and advanced services such as network slicing. These features mean 5G SA networks will prove particularly valuable in the private sector, including transport and manufacturing. The future success of the IoT is reliant on the rollout of SA 5G networks, given that low latency is a must for real-time machine-to-machine communications and use cases like self-driving vehicles.  Most important is that all of the 5G features are only realizable with a 5G SA core network, e.g. network slicing/virtualization, 5G security, automation and orchestration, MEF, etc.

There are of course challenges here. Building this infrastructure requires significant investment and some operators are still unsure that the business case for SA 5G is established enough to warrant the expenditure. Establishing roaming connections and agreements for SA 5G is another key part of the puzzle. As it stands, these connections are still being trialed and there is no live SA roaming (for the time being). To support 5G IoT use cases, in particular, operators will require international roaming interoperability for standalone 5G. However, many are reluctant to commit to such investment while the number of SA networks is still low.

References:

https://www.fiercewireless.com/5g/att-distributes-its-5g-sa-core-software-across-us

The steps needed to unlock 5G Standalone’s future – Telecoms.com