Author: Clarisse Dubois

In this blog, I give an overview of our eBook Private LTE & CBRS in which Dean Bubley of Disruptive Analysis depicts the current landscape of private networks which are expected to gain a lot of interest in the next few years.

Originally used for mining sites, oil & gas facilities and military bases, the new enterprise requirements for specialized solutions and the new CBRS spectrum band in the US are accelerating the deployment of this new trend. In the eBook, Dean discusses observing a large group of private LTE/5G supporters of all sorts – from enterprises, integrators, to traditional carriers.

What is a private cellular network?

A private cellular network is a business focus cellular network that allows enterprises or industrial companies to gain full ownership and control over their connectivity needs. It could either be deployed as a standalone network or as a hybrid network when radio or core networks elements are shared with MNOs. The range of scale can vary from 50m (office buildings, shopping mall, hotels) to 500km (rail networks, highways).

What are the motivations for deploying private LTE/5G?

• Coverage: lack of optimal public 4G/5G (industrial sites, rural factories…)
• Costs: cheaper alternatives and more flexible workspaces
• Control: better visibility on the key performance indicators as well as more security and compliance
• Compensation: enterprise can become a profit center.

According to Dean, key applications of private 4G/5G networks are on-site coverage for public MNO’s subscribers, IT resources (LAN/WAN), static & moving IoT devices, Operational Technology (OT) and voice connectivity over a specific area.

Where CBRS fits in?

Historically for naval radars, the CBRS band is ranging from 3.55 to 3.7 GHz. CBRS is still prioritized for US navy in the coastal areas. The rest of the spectrum is allocated to Protected Access License (up to 70MHz) and to General Authorized Access (up to 150MHz). A database-driven Spectrum Access System manages the resources allocation. The initial commercial deployment took place late 2019 for numerous use cases such as private networks for warehouses or improved indoor coverage for IoT.

What are the roles of mobile carries?

Mobile Carriers have many roles to play in the private networks landscape. We’re expecting to see them evolve a lot in the next few years and vary from large venues with many visitors, offices, industrial sites with IoT connectivity, multi-sites companies and government (super secure networks requirements). When deploying private 4G/5G, MNO’s might adopt hybrid model through interoperability agreement with public networks.

Due to private networks and shared spectrum, the traditional mobile networks value chain is slowly shifting. The delivery models are more heterogeneous and the 5G world is expecting to look like the IT industry where we see complex webs of strategic partnership, OEM and while-label business models.

What are the private networks deployment challenges?

Firstly, as private networks vary a lot in size, architecture and vendor/owner alignment, the challenge is to find the common horizontal for market expansion. There’s also lot of work around spectrum releases, technology standardization and the economics of deployment. Dean is also seeing technical, commercial, and regulatory obstacles such as network identity, cyber security and radiation.

For more details, download our Private LTE & CBRS eBook.

If you attended our recent webinar, hopefully you learnt something new about Private Enterprise Networks!

Industry analyst Dean Bubley has given us a clear understanding of the market considerations & challenges when it comes to the evolving roles of 5G & Wi-Fi in Enterprise & the new tendency of ‘semi-private’ networks. Vladan Jevremovic, our Senior Research Director, presented and demoed a use case of a 5G industrial plant design.

Haven’t attended the webinar or want to watch it again? Here is a recording of the Private Networks webinar. We received a lot of live questions but we didn’t have the time to answer them all. So Vladan & Dean took some time to combine those answers for you.

Enjoy!

Do you think investment in enterprise Wi-Fi and (semi)-private LTE/5G will increase or decrease because of the pandemic? (compared to a pre-pandemic outlook)

Dean: Depends a lot on macro-economy trends & any resurgence/mutation of the virus. Small-business Wi-Fi investment will likely fall because of economy / business failures in next 6-12 months.

Private LTE is likely to be relatively unaffected, especially given the continued growth in interest in CBRS in the US. Slight delay to PAL license auctions. Maybe a couple of months delay in some projects private/semi-private 5G will be slowed a bit, because of delays in finalizing R16 & maturing of standalone cores & devices.

Longer term there will be a refocus on some sectors vs others (healthcare, logistics etc. vs leisure & hotels)

What frequencies do you see or expect to make up the private networks? 2.3? CBRS?

Dean: Varies by country a lot (see the chart below)

• CBRS in the US, plus niche use of 900MHz
• 3.7-3.8 GHz in Germany & likely other places in Europe
• 2.6 GHz in France
• 1.8 GHz, 2.3 GHz (both small) for private 4G, and 3.8-4.2 GHz for 5G in UK, plus also secondary re-use of
• 2.6 GHz in some places
• 26 / 28 GHz mmWave for indoor / local use in various countries – Japan, UK, Malaysia, probably Germany, Nordics etc.
• At some point maybe also some 6 GHz for Wi-Fi 6E and NR-U

Who will run these Private networks? Enterprises don’t care for CSPs and have desire for private networks, but do they have skill/stomach to run them? Will there be a rise in MVNO/MVNE to do this or will there be an expansion of MSPs (possibly the guys already managing their Wi-Fi) or do the DAS and installer community move up the stack?

Dean: Huge mix here, varying by country, industry sector, network size and single-site vs. multi-site vs. wide area, use-cases etc.

Some will be CSPs, some industrial companies (Bosch, Siemens, Hitachi etc.), some critical-comms specialists from military & public safety backgrounds, some voice MSPs, some property companies, some towercos, some DAS providers…. Will take a year or two for patterns to emerge.

Does SaaS have a role in delivering private networks?

Dean: Yes, at multiple levels – eg Core-aaS, IoT platform-aaS, eSIM-aaS, IMS/VoLTE-aaS, cloud BSS/OSS and so on. Some may be provided by telcos offering enablers, some by vendors, some by startups.

Although Private LTE deployments have happened outside the US, it hasn’t had much success yet in the US, what are the reasons and how can wireless service providers be successful?

Vladan:  There is a lack of private LTE spectrum. CBRS is the spectrum where we think we will see most of private LTE deployments in the USA

What are the benefits of having private 5G than ISP public 5G?

Vladan: The first benefit is that it gives more control over the traffic in private network. Also, Security, Traffic and Interference are better controlled in a separate network.

Where to you see the status and adoption of MOCN in the USA? Is N26 going to enable MNO roaming into Private 5G-SA deployments?

Dean: Slow for now – maybe over the next couple of years but not something I’m 100% certain on at present.

Yes, it’s looking like there *could* be roaming scenarios emerging, but it gets a bit complicated because of issues like lawful-intercept & other regulatory concerns. Expect roaming-aaS to be offered. Also, may need extra numbering resources for the private network, plus various OSS/BSS functions. May also need the private network to use SIM/eSIM for this model – if it’s completely separate, they can use other authentication methods.

For any other questions about Private Networks, feel free to comment this blog and we’ll do our best to answer!