Four questions to consider when deploying enterprise private 5G

We work in a connected world. Everything from security cameras and environmental monitoring sensors to manufacturing equipment and forklifts are connected — supporting worker safety, driving business insights, and creating operational efficiencies. For these people, places, and things to work together as intended, organisations need reliable, high-performing, and ultra-secure connectivity.

The advancement of private 5G networks internationally is giving organisations a powerful, connectivity foundation to meet new data growth and operational needs without sacrificing visibility, control, or security. This allows for predictable capacity and deterministic performance while improving latency.

A strength of private 5G networks is their use of licensed spectrum, which prevents unwanted inference and disruption to network operations. With the release of mid-band spectrum as ‘area-wide licenses’, private 5G networks are starting to see growth in Australia, enabling enterprises to embrace a wide range of 5G use cases. While 5G as a mobile technology is well established, the use of private cellular is less so, and there have been many questions on how and why to build a private cellular network, and to which use cases it best applies.

Adoption in Australia has been slow for a couple of reasons. First, spectrum (until now) has been limited to remote areas of Australia, which drove initial adoption of private cellular networks in mining, as well as oil and gas companies. Area-wide licenses add national spectrum access for industry that includes remote and rural Australia, regional centres, and capital cities. Secondly, many organisations have struggled — despite its widespread use at the heart of how we communicate — to understand what some consider to be a new and unknown technology. Organisations have yet to realise how private wireless networks can be harnessed to resolve connectivity issues with Wi-Fi that have been holding their operations back.

Deploying private 5G is not as complex as organisations might think, and in many instances, can be delivered and operated using their existing IT/OT (Operational Technology) resources with minimum retraining.

Below are four questions to consider when deploying a private cellular network.

1. How can connectivity help my organisation execute on its business objectives?

Embracing a new technology for technology’s sake is a losing proposition. Consider the challenges your organisation is trying to overcome. Some common challenges that organisations face include:

• Needing to connect equipment, like handheld devices, more consistently and helping these devices remain connected.
• Introduction or scaling of automated machines such as AGVs or packing robots.
• Scaling the use of cameras and AI-backed computer vision to drive new digital quality initiatives.
• Cutting the cable and providing an easier way to connect the unconnected around a facility.
   

Toyota Material Handling’s major production complex in Columbus, Indiana, USA, was experiencing network challenges at their campus. As workers moved between Wi-Fi access points, RF scanners necessary for tracking parts through and out of the warehouse were periodically losing connection due to Wi-Fi dead zones.

Since the operational launch of a private 5G network at the facility, the organisation is achieving increased productivity, faster deliveries to customers, and boosted employee morale as their production and fulfilment processes became seamless.

The organisation made the decision to replace on-site Wi-Fi solutions with Ericsson Private 5G products and solutions. This resulted in business-critical operations at the almost 18,600 m² warehouse now being run exclusively over the on-site 5G private network, with no disruptions or connectivity loss experienced at the facility since operational launch in November 2023.

Understanding how connectivity enables efficiencies, improves worker safety, streamlines operations, or reduces risk is the first step in determining whether a private cellular network is right for your organisation. It’s also important to determine how you will measure success to consider how the deployment would impact key performance indicators (KPIs) such as production speed, network uptime, reduction in labour hours or time to market.

2. What are my connectivity requirements?

Organisations should look at the coverage, security, and performance of their connectivity needs, and not just those of today, but those they may be considering in the short to medium term. Where is connectivity required? How spread out are users and devices? What kind of devices are being connected? Is their location mobile or fixed? What applications will they be accessing? What are their bandwidth and latency requirements?

Aside from coverage, private networks allow organisations to experience a premium level of reliability, predictability, and security in their network. This is only possible because IT or OT admin teams are in total control of the network, dictating who’s on the network, where users can go in the network and the individual performance and experience provided to each user or application. This control is also important when it comes to critical latency and bandwidth.

Organisations today are flagging four major issues they experience with Wi-Fi.

Firstly, they can’t protect themselves from other networks nearby that interfere or reduce the available wireless capacity for their applications.

They also find that as they use the networks for more and more use-cases, adding video for AI or mix production essential systems with IT traffic, the networks slow down exponentially under load: they become unpredictable and unable to support critical traffic.

Thirdly, future applications and use cases in their digital roadmaps will be more critical to day-to-day operations than ever before. Organisations see the issues with Wi-Fi today and know that unless a change in technology strategy is delivered, they will be stranded to non-deterministic networks that fail to meet the demands of the business, as well as the associated regret-spend.

Finally, devices in the Wi-Fi world can tend to hang on to bad connections rather than taking better access point options nearby. This lack of control over user experience impacts user productivity and application integrity, whether it’s a handheld scanner in a warehouse or an automated vehicle.

Through a private 5G network, network administrators can set specific service levels and priorities to different applications. Private 5G networks enable organisations to segregate their systems and thus avoid interference with nearby networks. Allowing users and systems to be effectively segregated also enables management of packet loss, latency, and jitter levels across service flows. In a Private 5G network, the network is also in control of the user experience, instructing clients which cell to connect to in order to deliver the required levels of performance. These handoffs ensure that optimal connection performance is always provided.

3. What are the security requirements on my private 5G network?

One of the biggest benefits of a private cellular network over Wi-Fi is security. Malicious actors are getting increasingly sophisticated about stealing users’ credentials, so many networks can be compromised simply through unsecure or shared credentials for the Wi-Fi. Once that initial breach is made, they can then spread throughout the network virtually unimpeded. Public cellular networks may be more secure than Wi-Fi, but control is in the hands of the carrier, not the enterprise. Private cellular networks, on the other hand, provide full control with the following features.

SIM-based authentication

Using a private cellular network, enterprises have full control of their network and — unlike Wi-Fi — this includes physical control. To access the network, users and devices must have a provisioned SIM or eSIM. This eliminates the risk posed by traditional credential-based attacks with the network authenticating each device, and each device authenticating the network. Even if a bad actor got their hands on an authorised device, they would only be able to obtain the information the assigned SIM has access to. Once the breach is discovered, network administrators can disable the SIM to prevent further data discovery. Many private cellular networks are now deploying security measures that encompass device and user security on top of 5G’s secure connectivity foundation.

Localisation of traffic

Unlike public mobile networks, private 5G networks keep all data on site and within the confines of the organisation’s physical perimeter. Data does not need to leave site, and only does so if allowed to do so by organisation security policy (e.g. for cloud applications). Uptime of the network is not impacted by events and operational decisions made outside the enterprise.

Separation and encryption of data

All over-the-air traffic in a private cellular network is encrypted using the same strong encryption used in public mobile networks. Furthermore, all user traffic is segregated from other users and can be mapped into VLANs already used by the enterprise. In effect, a single network can be used to carry IT, OT, and critical OT traffic at the same time, with complete isolation from each other, and without lesser critical traffic impact the performance of more critical traffic.

Custom security policies

Private cellular security is attractive to IT teams eager to implement security policies that can be designed and controlled by the enterprise. Under a private network, configurations are fully customisable to meet enterprise security requirements. This includes the ability to establish rules for when and where devices can be online.

4. Do I have cellular network expertise inside my organisation?

While private networks have their roots in complex setup and management synonymous with national-scale public mobile networks, new solutions that embrace automation and orchestration along with better management interfaces make it easier than ever to build and manage these secure, robust networks. Operators of these newer private 5G networks claim they are now easier to operate than Wi-Fi.

Today, private cellular network connectivity provides users with an end-to-end solution from a single pane of glass, enabling visibility and easy management through point-and-click interfaces and without having to learn command line operations. Technology concepts such as click-to-deploy remove configuration complexity and risk. Automated tools simplify everything from alarm management through to optimisation and lifecycle (upgrade) management.

Working with a private cellular network partner that simplifies connectivity and enables centralised network management helps to ensure project success. The right partner can also ensure that you have the necessary support throughout the entire lifecycle of your private network deployment.

The bottom line

5G is a cellular network technology that moves industry beyond Wi-Fi with greater network capacity, improved coverage, enhanced native security, and an ability to connect more devices. When deployed as a private network, organisations achieve controllable industrial connectivity for real-time control and safety, ultra-survivability, deterministic performance, and data localisation security.

The result is a wireless network foundation that is free of the constraints of Wi-Fi and enables new digital initiatives at scale that can create agility, advance operations, and unlock business intelligence.

The advancement of 5G networks across Australia gives organisations a way to meet new high-performance data needs without sacrificing visibility, control, and security. With the low latency as well as indoor and outdoor coverage that a dedicated private network provides, organisations can easily install and manage enterprise private 5G, which allows integration with IT/OT systems, while ensuring high security and privacy through local data hosting. These capabilities are increasingly required to meet the needs in manufacturing, mining, and marine port industries in the Asia Pacific region.

Top image credit: iStock.com/Just_Super