Nokia spreads Wing IoT with 5G and edge capabilities

Aiming to enable operators to offer 5G internet of things (IoT) services quickly and cost-effectively while addressing demanding latency, security and throughput requirements, Nokia has upgraded its Worldwide IoT Network Grid (Wing) managed service with 5G and edge capabilities.

Wing is designed to help operators capture early IoT market share without having to invest in infrastructure by offering a pay-as-you-go business model that allows faster, cost-effective scaling of 5G IoT services.

With Wing innovations, Nokia said operators could serve their enterprise customers 5G IoT services with ultra-low latency, high security and enhanced throughput. As a result, it said operators would be able to deploy new business models and tap into industries such as connected cars, critical public services, and real-time industrial monitoring and control, as well as remote healthcare.

Nokia cautioned that many of these use cases would place unprecedented demands on latency, the volume and velocity of data, and security, so Wing had been built from an architecture that allows a “seamless” upgrade to 5G.

As part of the 5G upgrade, user plane functions can be separated and extended to the far network edge or to enterprise premises, ensuring the required low latency. The distributed Wing infrastructure can be enhanced with multi-access edge computing (MEC) technology, improving the ability to support compute-intensive IoT services such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) maintenance, and cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) use cases. To realise the full potential of these diverse use cases, Nokia said network slicing could be introduced via Wing’s cloud-native architecture.

To ease what it said would be a complex transition, Nokia has invested in a 5G Wing lab in Dallas, Texas, to which operators around the globe can connect and begin testing 5G IoT use cases.

“The Nokia Wing infrastructure offers superior IoT service experience through global network presence, unified orchestration and consistent service level agreements to operators’ enterprise customers,” remarked Ankur Bhan, head of Nokia Wing Business.

“We have upgraded Wing’s global architecture to 5G to further help operators to monetise IoT opportunities faster and cost-effectively in the 5G era. We are actively working with operators which have a global enterprise customer base and need to address their increasing needs for secure, low-latency IoT use cases across geographical borders.”

Nokia has already signed a contract with Telecom Argentina, enabling it to offer IoT services to its enterprise customers in the country and across Latin America using Wing.

The virtualised infrastructure will be offered as a managed service, giving companies faster capability to launch IoT services that improve their customer experience. It is also intended to provide Telecom Argentina’s customers with strategic opportunities to ensure the implementation of suitable solutions to various industry verticals that seek IoT services in Argentina, with a fast time to market across industries including automotive, agriculture, utilities, finance and services.