Data Confusion At The Edge

Disparities in pre-processing of data at the edge, coupled with a total lack of standardization, is raising questions about how that data will be prioritized and managed in AI and machine learning systems. Initially, the idea was that 5G would connect edge data to the cloud, where massive server farms would infer patterns from that data and send it back to the edge devices. But there is far too much data being generated by a rapidly growing army of edge sensors, including streaming video, to make that approach workable. Instead, processing has to be done at the end point, or close to it, in an area that is today vaguely defined as the edge. A recent report from Cisco estimates that by 2022, monthly Internet protocol traffic will be 396 exabytes per month, up from about about 122 exabytes per month in 2017.