{"id":2925,"date":"2021-08-16T05:56:25","date_gmt":"2021-08-16T05:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/telcocloudbridge.com\/?p=2925"},"modified":"2026-09-21T18:22:48","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T18:22:48","slug":"where-are-edge-data-centers-located","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/telecomlighthouse.com\/?p=2925","title":{"rendered":"Where are edge data centers located?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Where are <a href=\"https:\/\/telecomlighthouse.com\/blog\/the-two-models-of-edge-cloud-architecture-you-must-know\/\">edge data centers<\/a> located ?&#8221; This is the first question that any&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/telecomlighthouse.com\/blog\/what-is-edge-computing-and-mec\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">edge computing<\/a>&nbsp;seeker asks<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and &#8220;what is the latency threshold for each edge data center&#8221; is the second that comes to mind<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Therefore, this blog answers these questions in easy to understand manner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I do see a lot of confusion with the naming and the latency when it comes to edge computing<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For example, there are as many names for edge data centers as there are types. We haven&#8217;t heard such names for the traditional data center:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Near-edge, far-edge, deep-edge&#8230;..etc.. you name it and you will find the type<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Don&#8217;t get confused by them. A lot of them are just the marketing terms coming from the <a href=\"https:\/\/telecomlighthouse.com\/blog\/telco-edge-computing-business-models\/\">edge computing vendors<\/a>. So really does not matter.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In fact, Edge can be anywhere ( between centralized data centers and users), it can be at the customer site, at a base station site, one hop away, two hops away, etc<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, I do think that everyone needs some reference and benchmark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So I will use two sources:&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/opnfv-edgecloud.readthedocs.io\/en\/stable-gambia\/development\/requirements\/requirements.html#small-edge\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">OPNFV<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/wiki.openstack.org\/wiki\/Edge_Computing_Group\/Edge_Reference_Architectures\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">OpenStack foundation<\/a>&nbsp;and show latencies and locations from these sources<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just one point, the E2E latency is one way and not two way and I have explained it well in this&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/telecomlighthouse.com\/blog\/5g-latency-you-wished-you-knew-it-before\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">article<\/a>&nbsp;on how many people get confused with one way and two-way latency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The official documentation for<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/opnfv-edgecloud.readthedocs.io\/en\/stable-gambia\/development\/requirements\/requirements.html#small-edge\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&nbsp;OPNFV&nbsp;<\/a>&nbsp;defines E2E delay as following<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The time of the transmission process between the user equipment and the edge cloud site. It contains four parts: time of radio transmission, <a href=\"https:\/\/telecomlighthouse.com\/blog\/what-your-dwdm-vendor-did-not-tell-you-about-latency-for-data-center-interconnect\/\">time of optical fiber transmission<\/a>, time of GW forwarding, and time of VM forwarding&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Few things you should note are that OPNFV and <a href=\"https:\/\/telecomlighthouse.com\/blog\/openstack-components-and-services\/\">Openstack use different terms<\/a> for the same data centers<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let&#8217;s go one by one<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Where are Edge data centers located?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/telecomlighthouse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/image-2-1024x384-1.png\" alt=\"where are edge data centers located?\" class=\"wp-image-2926\" width=\"742\" height=\"278\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Small Edge \/ Access Edge &#8211;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Small edge data center is closest to the base station.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Latency from UE to the site is around 2 ms<\/li><li>Distance from cell site to edge site is around 10 KM<\/li><li>The maximum bandwidth it can provide is 50Gb\/s<\/li><li>Services that can be deployed here have very low latency requirements.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is possible to use this site without virtualization using just bare-metal<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Medium Edge \/ Aggregation Edge<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is larger than access edge and can also serve as an aggregation site of multiple access sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Latency from UE to the site is around 2.5 ms<\/li><li>Distance from cell site to edge site is around 50 KM<\/li><li>The maximum bandwidth it can provide is 100Gb\/s<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;It is possible to use bare-metal as well as VMs\/containers<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&nbsp;Large Edge\/Aggregation Edge<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This has a larger capacity than the medium edge and further way at a distance of 80 to 300 KM, this can also serve as an aggregation layer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>&nbsp;Latency from UE to the site is around 4 ms<\/li><li>Distance from cell site to edge site is around 80-300 KM<\/li><li>The maximum bandwidth it can provide is 200Gb\/s<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is always virtualized using VMs or containers or both<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What are the other locations of edge data centers?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Edge data centers can also be located right at the base station, called tower edge, or on the customer premises, the on-premises data center are owned by the enterprises themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What is the best location for an edge data center?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It depends on the latency requirements and the need for reducing the backhaul bandwidth. There is no one-size-fits-all location. It can be within the premises of the customer, at the tower, one hop away or two hops away depending on the application latency requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For telco edge cases, some guidance can be obtained from&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/opnfv-edgecloud.readthedocs.io\/en\/stable-gambia\/development\/requirements\/requirements.html#small-edge\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">OPNFV<\/a>&nbsp;here<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">CDN &#8211; 10 ms<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">enterprise vCPE -50 ms<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">5G-UPF 10 ms<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">MEC uRLLC &lt; 3 ms<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">eMBB &lt; 10 ms<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">CRAN-CU 3ms&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Note that the CDN&#8217;s ( content delivery network) latency is not that strict and the motivation of its deployment may be mainly reducing the backhaul transport rather than reduction of latency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Where are edge data centers located ?&#8221; This is the first question that any&nbsp;edge computing&nbsp;seeker asks and &#8220;what is the latency threshold for each edge data center&#8221; is the second that comes to mind Therefore, this blog answers these questions in easy to understand manner. I do see a lot of confusion with the naming [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-edge-cloud-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlighthouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlighthouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlighthouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlighthouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlighthouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2925"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlighthouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3584,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlighthouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2925\/revisions\/3584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlighthouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlighthouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlighthouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlighthouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}