- [Narrator] Microsoft and AT&T are working together
to enable many new and exciting use cases
leveraging compute at the network edge.
These new use cases address business challenges
in a wide range of verticals.
- Azure Public Multi-Access Edge Compute,
or Azure public MEC,
is an edge compute solution from Microsoft.
Enterprises and developers can leverage the solution
to deploy applications needing low latency
and connectivity to the mobile network.
This solution will also provide Azure automation,
industry-leading security,
developer experience with ability to use services
available in the Azure regions.
- [Narrator] AT&T has built its dedicated
and optimized Network Edge low latency connectivity
to the Azure public MEC.
That way, AT&T 5G Mobility users
can take advantage of the workloads deployed on the edge.
- AT&T's network design keeps traffic local
which ensures higher performance/lower latency
getting traffic to and from
the local edge compute environment.
So, the beauty of this solution
is really an integrated public MEC
that combines AT&T's speed,
security in our 5G mobility network
with Microsoft's world-class Azure capabilities
to support a whole range of new and innovative use cases
that require low latency at the edge.
- [Narrator] Azure public MEC with AT&T
is available for developers, enterprise customers,
and ISVs with applications designed to run workloads
that require low latency.
To ensure the best possible service for customers,
Microsoft and AT&T worked with Spirent
to benchmark user experience and performance
prior to the launch of the Azure public MEC with AT&T
in Atlanta, Georgia.
Spirent's service assurance solutions
use virtual test agents to emulate live traffic
and give end-to-end visibility into any node in a network,
providing realistic insight into expected performance.
Using these solutions, we can emulate, monitor,
and benchmark the customer's experience for any application.
- By partnering with Spirent,
Microsoft is tapping into decades of expertise
in application service assurance and validation.
This invariably will impact the market
by increasing customer confidence
in the adoption of these edge-based services,
and in doing so, accelerate the adoption of net new markets.
- [Narrator] Let's take a quick look
at the high-level network architecture
for the proof of concept
for the Azure public MEC with AT&T in Atlanta.
With Azure public MEC,
we are extending the Azure cloud to the edge
within AT&T's local metropolitan area network,
thereby eliminating endless miles
of fiber to the infrastructure to decrease latency
and open a new world of critical applications.
In this proof of concept,
Spirent active assurance was used at various nodes
to emulate and monitor traffic to the public cloud
and the Azure public MEC with AT&T.
Virtual test agents were placed at the end user devices
within the public MEC and in the public cloud
to determine latency, jitter, and bandwidth differences.
- [Ross] To manage the testing, we used Spirent Vantage,
a network aware mobility service assurance platform.
Vantage provides operations teams
with an at-a-glance visualization of network performance
and identifies where issues are happening
before users are impacted.
In Virginia, we see the Azure East public cloud
and in Atlanta we see the Azure public MEC with AT&T.
The over-the-air agent uses a commercial
Samsung galaxy handset from the AT&T store
and provides results representative
of what a typical consumer will see.
Now let's click down on the workflow
and see what the test results look like.
This view shows the results from the over-the-air agent
to the server in the Azure East region
over the duration of the test.
Now let's compare that to the Azure public MEC.
We can see the brown line at the top of each of the KPIs
is the test that's going to the Azure public cloud
and the blue line to the Azure public MEC with AT&T.
When we look at the first KPI, Ping, or ICMP response time,
we see a significant reduction in the average of 26%.
When we look at the next KPI, Jitter,
the variants in latency on the network,
this is reduced by 20% using the Azure public MEC.
High Jitter adversely impacts applications,
like augmented reality and virtual reality,
and cloud autonomous vehicles,
and small improvements make a big difference
for the developers and users
of these real-time applications.
As we move up the OSI stack to the application layer,
we executed an HTTP test to the web servers
located in the Azure public MEC and cloud environments
with an extremely dense Kepler ETSI reference webpage.
The time to first byte
is the time from when the HTTP Get is sent
until the first byte of the page header is received.
For this KPI, we saw a 36% improvement.
Lastly, when we look at the entire HTTP download time
for this dense webpage,
our results reveal not only a decrease in load time,
but of greater significance
is the consistency and reduction in variability.
This makes it much easier for application developers
to manage the latency of their applications.
In looking at the key metrics
that were tested, the Azure public MEC with AT&T
provides reductions in end-to-end latency,
jitter, time to first byte, and page load time
that are predictable and consistent.
This is essential to enable critical real-time applications
for both humans and connected machines.
As mobile networks evolved
to the new 3GPP 5G standalone architecture,
there will be further enhancements that improve these KPIs.
- [Narrator] The collaboration between Spirent,
Microsoft, and AT&T is focused on one outcome -
make sure the Azure public MEC implementation with AT&T
exceeds customer expectations.
This will accelerate market adoption
of edge-based service delivery models
as well as increased productivity
for the end user customers themselves.
(upbeat music)