Verizon and AWS Expand Locations: Easy Aerial Tests Advantages for Drones and Mobile Edge Computing

by DRONELIFE Staff Writer Ian M. Crosby

Verizon and AWS are expanding their mobile edge computing service, Verizon 5G Edge with AWS Wavelength, to Charlotte, Detroit, Los Angeles and Minneapolis. The real-time cloud computing platform brings AWS compute and storage services to the edge of Verizon’s wireless network and minimizes the latency and network hops required to connect from an application hosted on the platform to the end user’s device. Launched in 2020, 5G Edge with AWS Wavelength enables developers and businesses to create and deploy a range of applications including machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and video and game streaming. Mobile edge computing is available in 17 locations in the U.S. via AWS Wavelength zones.

Fermata Energy, a Verizon Ventures company, and Easy Aerial, a leading provider of drone-in-a-box-based monitoring and inspection solutions, rank among the participants in the 5G Studio, a collaboration between Verizon and Newlab, to develop transformative technology solutions that make use of Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network technology and Verizon 5G Edge with AWS Wavelength at Newlab

The low end-to-end latency provided by Verizon 5G Edge with AWS Wavelength enabled Easy Aerial to collect and transfer live drone video for near real-time object detection and telemetry data for rapid processing and analysis. 5G and mobile edge computing also allowed for the removal of costly computers from the drone, reportedly saving roughly 10% in drone costs and increasing flight time by approximately 40%.

“Being able to utilize the high bandwidth for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that Verizon 5G Edge with AWS Wavelength provides is a game changer,” said Easy Aerial CTO Ivan Stamatovski. “It shifts the paradigm on what is possible to achieve with airborne sensors by processing data at the edge of the network in near real-time.”

Fermata Energy’s Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) technology enables electric vehicles (EVs) to serve as mini power plants by discharging energy services from EVs’ batteries to the home, building, or energy grid through the use of a bidirectional charger. This technology enables Fermata Energy to deploy an EV as an effective energy resource.

Additionally, Verizon and AWS are working with software as a service (SaaS) providers Couchbase and Confluent to make it easier to build applications running on Verizon 5G Edge with AWS Wavelength. With the use of infrastructure templates, Verizon and AWS improved the abilities of these providers to automate the complexity of edge networking, core compute, and the software itself.

“Using Verizon 5G Edge with AWS Wavelength and Confluent, our joint customers are able to build real-time IoT connections with ultra-low latency,” said Gerry Fierling, Sr. Director, Global AWS Alliance, Confluent. “This allows organizations to intelligently respond to events happening essentially in real-time as they deploy more 5G-enabled devices across their organizations to power next-generation digital experiences and business processes.”

Verizon also offers developers the 5G Edge Discovery Service to easily implement the 5G Edge footprint into mobile applications, available on the 5G Edge developer portal.

“Through our continued collaboration with AWS, we’re helping developers and businesses in every industry create truly transformational applications for use cases such as immersive VR gaming, video distribution, and connected and autonomous vehicles,” said Verizon Business CEO Tami Erwin. “By expanding our 5G Edge locations across the U.S., we’re enabling developers to quickly and easily build apps and services that take advantage of the low latency, massive bandwidth and strong reliability of 5G and edge computing.”

Verizon 5G Edge with AWS Wavelength is currently available in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York City, Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle and Washington DC.

Read more about drones and Verizon 5G, Easy Aerial, and edge computing.

Ian attended Dominican University of California, where he received a BA in English in 2019. With a lifelong passion for writing and storytelling and a keen interest in technology, he is now contributing to DroneLife as a staff writer.