Singtel showcases 5G and Azure public MEC tech for healthcare, digital twins, smart cities
Singtel announced that they are now making the Azure public multi-access edge compute (MEC) available for all enterprises and unveiled their first commercial customer use case in Singapore.
Additionally, Singtel has added partner solutions such as large language modeling (LLM) to its 5G offerings, allowing customers to experience edge computing and AI accelerated by 5G, the company says.
As a result of the integration, the National University Health System (NUHS) and Singtel trialed a 5G network, Paragon, and Microsoft Azure to improve surgical procedures through mixed reality technology.
Bill Chang, the CEO of group enterprise at Singtel, says, “With Singtel 5G and Paragon, and Microsoft Azure public MEC, customers can rapidly develop, test and deploy 5G applications such as autonomous guided vehicles, drones, immersive virtual reality and real-time digital twin use cases.”
Singtel says enterprises can take advantage of the benefits of 5G, such as high bandwidth and low latency, in various sectors like smart city, public safety, transportation, healthcare and urban planning.
Yousef Khalidi, the corporate VP, Azure for operators, adds, “Our deep ecosystem collaboration with Singtel provides a unified compute solution from the cloud to the edge that will help organizations and developers build more Singapore-born innovation as we empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.”
According to the companies, Azure public MEC provides enterprises with fast, reliable and secure connections to enable data processing and storage closer to end-users, reducing latency and improving network performance. This facilitates the development of use cases such as digital twins, distributed compute video analytics solutions and LLM.
Use case: AR and healthcare
The first commercial customer use case of Azure public MEC technology with augmented reality for the healthcare sector occurs within the NUHS’ holomedicine program. The companies say this solution will leverage Singtel’s 5G network for high-resolution images to be transmitted to Microsoft HoloLens, a mixed-reality headset, allowing surgeons to better visualize patients’ organs in 3D without lag.
According to the companies, this trial has proven that the technology can effectively enhance surgical planning, advance patient education and safety and provide a more engaging environment for surgical training and research using 5G.
Use case: AR, digital twins and workplace safety
Singtel also showcased three other software solutions powered by 5G and Azure Public MEC that demonstrate augmented reality applications and digital twins.
Bridging the gap between 5G, compute and AI, Singtel, Microsoft and NVIDIA have also collaborated to provide an edge video solution to help improve workplace safety. This solution utilizes Singtel’s low latency 5G network for connectivity and its Paragon platform for compute management.
NVIDIA’s full-stack accelerated computing platform provides edge GPU appliances. Microsoft’s Azure and Azure public MEC provide the compute infrastructure and EVS solution to distribute video analytics across different environments.
Some of the benefits this solution promises include low latency performance, cost-efficient re-use of existing enterprise applications in the cloud and faster response times at the edge with coordination from a central public cloud infrastructure.
Singtel 5G and Azure public MEC are also used in Hiverlab’s digital twin solution, which is used for public safety and surveillance, smart campuses, factories, ports, airports, etc. The companies say this technology allows users to gain an end-to-end view of their operations with real-time rendering and intuitive interfaces for quick identification and resolution of incidents, remote fixes and better coordination of resources.
Use case: LLM and avatars
Additionally, Singtel and Quantiphi collaborated to showcase a “Conversational 3D Avatar” that uses Large Language Model (LLM) technology and operates on 5G and Azure public Mobile Edge Computing (MEC). It has potential applications in several industries, such as field support, digital concierge, help desk, operation support and knowledge kiosk.
Singtel says it offers a personalized experience through a digital avatar and AI to process and present large amounts of information effectively. Singtel executives explain that it can currently respond to topics related to MEC, 5G, Paragon and 5G use cases and is suitable for sales enablement or outreach purposes.
Last year, Singtel and other telecom operators and edge computing solution providers made headlines for announcing they achieved cross-platform communication between applications at the network edge for the first time. More specifically, the companies worked together to establish a connection between two different multi-access edge computing (MEC) platforms.
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Article Topics
5G | Azure | digital twins | edge AI | healthcare | MEC | Microsoft | public edge cloud | Singtel | smart cities
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