
The data confirms a sharp increase in patent filings, patent declaration and standards contributions. Edging aheadįigure 1 shows the number of submitted standards contributions per year, the number of patent families by publication year, as well as the number of SEP families by year of declaration that describe edge computing technologies. To get a better understanding of the landscape of patents, SEPs and standards contributions for edge computing technologies, the IPlytics Platform databases were used to analyse edge computing-related patent filing trends as well as to understand which companies develop the latest standards that enable edge computing and which companies hold essential assets on edge computing technologies. Such patents are referred to as standard essential patents (SEPs).Ĭompanies that define and specify technologies such as 5G or Wi-Fi and that own essential patents for such technologies will be among the technology leaders in a soon fully connected world. Connectivity standards are often subject to thousands of patents and in some cases these patents claim inventions that read on the standardised technology. While the edge computing concept may reduce the volume of communication between device and the cloud, edge computing is still heavily dependent on connectivity standards such as 5G or Wi-Fi. And one can expand the application scenarios infinitely: from the implementation of blockchain logic in production, logistics and supply chains to the complex calculation of augmented and virtual reality models, for example for plant technicians during installation or maintenance work, to the real-time control of production plants, and so on. The potential for weight and cost reduction through edge computing devices can be illustrated, for example, by the complex image processing and video analysis of camera drones.
WHO IS LEADING 5G TECHNOLOGY INSTALL
Vehicles stand still for an average of 96% of their lifetime – here, the load-balancing advantage of edge computing becomes very clear: you do not necessarily have to install expensive components in every vehicle, but instead shift the logic to an edge computing device that can serve a large number of vehicles.

The processing of vehicle data in the context of autonomous driving is often cited as a relevant use case for edge computing. Bringing computation to the network’s edge minimises the amount of long-distance communication that must happen between client and server. In simpler terms, edge computing means running fewer processes in the cloud and moving those processes to local devices, such as on a user’s smartphone, computer, an internet of things device, or an edge server. The idea behind it is simple: bring the cloud with its computing capacity closer to the users and thus achieve runtimes of less than 10 milliseconds but without losing the advantages of the cloud. The concept of edge computing provides a solution. However, the significant increase in the number of end devices, the explosion in the volumes of data exchanged, and the need for minimum latency times are placing new demands which 5G technology alone may not meet. At its core, 5G was about offering significantly higher data rates (100 times higher than 4G/LTE), enabling latency times in the millisecond range, and providing significantly higher availability and reliability of the network.
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The 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), the organisation responsible for cellular standards development, already had these new requirements in mind when it defined the fifth-generation mobile network 5G. The expectation is that a typical end user will generate up to 1.5 gigabytes of data per day, and a vehicle with up to 4 terabytes even several times that amount. Telecom equipment supplier Ericsson estimates that global data traffic will increase fivefold to 136 exabytes per month within the next five years, compared to today. Not only the number of devices but also the volume of data continues to increase dramatically.

In the future, half of the world’s data volume will no longer be generated by or between people but by vehicles, sensors, or other various types of networked devices, according to some predictions.
