Infrastructure: Virtualisation or Beautification? Choose Both!

We’re socially engineered to believe that mobile infrastructure is necessarily inelegant. As a result, we see brand new Housing Developments – ideal for hybrid working – built without adequate Mobile Coverage. We see cities looking to clear the pavements of cabinets, and then see them empty of consumers too, as they can’t find a mobile signal to pay for parking, find a store on a map or bill for EV charging.

But virtualisation creates #HiddenInfrastructure as network elements, which used to rely upon physical appliances co-located with masts, are increasingly able to be split between more simplified on-premises equipment with remaining network elements being delivered by virtualised cloud deployments, edge computing and Open RAN which are pooled into fewer, off-street locations.

The Virtual Networks SIG has noticed a growing trend towards solutions where virtualisation has not simply replaced a vertical proprietary stack with a disaggregated vertical stack, but actively centralised the compute elements. These not only reduce the volume of the equipment at the mast site, they also potentially reduce the volume, energy and cost of the compute network elements, and by centralising we can also start thinking towards adding layers of extra capability such as air quality monitoring and automated video monitoring. By looking wider than ‘how can I virtualise what I already have’ we can deliver Neutral Host, Private Networks and Smart City solutions all through infrastructure deployed in Near Edge and Far Edge DCs. What’s visible in the built environment may even reach ‘de minimis’ through the power of virtualisation!

This event will aim to share some of the above thinking about how to reduce the on-premises aspect of wireless infrastructure to a volume and form-factor which can be hidden in plain sight. We hope to explore the perspectives of local authorities and property developers on the challenges of the aesthetics of mobile infrastructure and then consider these against emerging solutions offered through virtualisation. How – by adopting a unified approach to infrastructure – they might be able to combine mobile infrastructure with already planned infrastructure such as EV charging, street lighting or bus shelters. So our event will cover virtualisation, but also beautification!

You can follow @CambWireless on Twitter and tweet about this event using #CWVN.