What Is Edge Device?

If you like going to parties, you would know about the time when it was your first time at one, and you just wanted to get in to learn more about it, yet you were too young to do so. Yet you did whatever you could to get into a club with a fake ID. You know the importance of having a suitable edge device. An edge device is like the bouncer at a club. Like, you're in your office and want to connect to another office in your company over the Internet. You can't just walk over there because that would be weird, so instead, you need to find an edge device that's the bouncer to get you past the bouncer at the club door so that he can take care of business with your request. Edge devices are everywhere: on networks in homes, offices, schools, hospitals and universities; they're even on subways and airplanes! An edge device connects an internal local area network (LAN) to an external vast area network (WAN) or the Internet. Edge devices connect and translate traffic between networks entering or exiting the network. An edge device is your go-to friend who knows how to start the party. Edge devices ensure you can connect and transfer data to a network, whether that's an external network (like the Internet) or a non-propriety one (like your favorite game console). They provide the entry point into a service provider, carrier or primary enterprise network and network translation between networks that use different protocols. That way, if you're playing online multiplayer games on your Xbox One and someone invites you over to their PlayStation 4, your Edge device will translate and transfer packets and cells between an Ethernet and ATM network so that everyone gets to play together!