What to Expect With the 5G Shift in Private Networks

While enterprises have predominantly relied on public networks in the past, that situation has changed with the 5G shift in private networks.

Private networks, principally 4G/LTE, have become much more common, offering numerous advantages over public networks, including:

Enhanced cybersecurity

Greater control

More flexibility and customization

However, there is a shift happening in the market and more 5G deployments are taking place, driven by:

Increasing private network allocations in 5G

Greater availability of needed technology and expertise

The device ecosystem embracing 5G

More industry groups certifying 5G solutions

Network design considerations are very important for any enterprise interested in a private 5G network. Justifying the ROI on a private network deployment will depend on accurate network design to deliver that ROI.

Networks must be designed to take advantage of the full potential of 5G’s superior capabilities.

Present and Future Use Cases Should Drive Adoption

For the moment, 4G/LTE remains dominant for a few reasons:

Many deployments required 4G as an anchor

Few standalone 5G products on market

Fragmentation of 5G bands limited market viability

Many products and applications were only available in 4G/LTE

Perception of 5G as a moving target, immature market, has limited demand

Despite featuring in fewer deployments, private 5G networks offer substantial benefits over private 4G/LTE networks. 5G offers greater bandwidth and lower latency, allowing enterprises to introduce bandwidth-intensive and latency-sensitive technologies more easily. It also enables support for more users, devices, and access points simultaneously.

The use cases an enterprise needs to address should drive the potential adoption of a private 5G network. In general, use cases that need significant bandwidth or have extremely sensitive latency requirements will see benefits from 5G.

It’s important to note that enterprises should consider both present and future use cases in their planning.

Preparing in advance for future technologies and bandwidth that may need 5G capabilities can help enterprises avoid significant added costs down the road.

Ideal Use Cases that Take Advantage of the Benefits of 5G

What are the ideal use cases? While the number and variety of use cases will vary by industry sector, let’s look at three examples.

5G Shift in Private Networks: Enhancing Live Events

Inside of a football stadium, showing the 5G Shift in Private Networks: Enhancing Live EventsA stadium that hosts thousands of fans at a time wants to allow those fans to use their handheld devices to buy merchandise, livestream an event as it happens, or live-tweet or use social media during the event.

Enhancing the event with online services delivers direct value by allowing customers to purchase concessions and merchandise. And it can also generate free organic marketing via social media. But allowing thousands of devices to operate simultaneously requires enormous bandwidth capabilities that only private 5G networks can offer.

5G Shift in Private Networks: Delivering Location-Based Services

Similarly, a shopping mall may want to offer direct marketing to customers inside the mall by advertising stores and products available on premises. Many retail establishments also want to offer services to users, such as directions to shops or amenities like washrooms and parking lots.

These types of location-based services improve the user experience inside the mall and produce direct revenues for retailers. 5G’s substantial bandwidth allows them to support a large number of users at the same time. And its improved latency can be used to provide directions and product offerings in real time as users move through the mall.

5G Shift in Private Networks: Enabling AI and IoT

Factories are also ideal environments for private 5G deployments. With 5G, factory operations can be enhanced with autonomous, connected vehicles that leverage IoT and AI technologies. These vehicles can deliver substantial value by increasing operational efficiency and reducing personnel costs, among other benefits.

Private 5G networks provide the higher bandwidth and low latency needed to support the movement and delivery of the enormous quantities of data that is constantly generated by autonomous vehicles. High-latency networks reduce the value of having autonomous vehicles on the factory floor and can make those vehicles inefficient.

iBwave Delivers Needed Design Capabilities

None of these use cases will exist in sterile, fully controlled environments. Stadiums, malls, and factories are all highly dynamic environments with many ways for a signal to get lost, interrupted, or blocked. And 5G, like 4G/LTE, will have to co-exist with other technologies, such as Wi-Fi. So, integration and interaction with these technologies must be considered when enterprises are designing a 5G network.

5G networks are also more difficult to design than 4G/LTE networks, and more expensive. This means that mistakes are easier to make and more costly. Therefore, accurate network design and coverage prediction are crucial to ensuring that enterprises get the value they need from an investment in a 5G network.

iBwave Private Networks fully addresses all the design complexities and provides clear, easy-to-use software for survey and design. It enables network designers to easily and quickly design accurate networks, avoiding both under design and overdesign. Available as a 5G/LTE and Wi-Fi solution, iBwave Private Networks enables designers to easily:

Model venues in advanced 3D with AutoCAD import

Design from a database of vendor-modeled network components, including Small Cells, Aps, cables, controllers, routers, and more

Calibrate prediction with survey results

Run key project reports

iBwave Private Networks delivers the simplest and most reliable solution for planning, designing, and delivering high-performance private 5G networks. Advanced features such as the Fast Ray Tracing Prediction Engine, Prediction Calibration, Inclined Surface Modeling, and Attenuation by Frequency ensure the network you design and install functions exactly as intended. Plus, cloud connectivity and seamless integration with iBwave Mobile Survey ensures that iBwave can meet all your network needs, present and future.

For more information, take a look at the full product breakdown of iBwave Private Networks.

And for more insights into the growing demand for 5G networks, download our latest e-book: Top Trends in Private Networks for 2023.

See you at Wi-Fi Now?

Big plans for us next week, we are off to Washington D.C to one of the Wi-Fi industry’s largest conferences, Wi-Fi NOW in Washington D.C. Have you ever been to one? I was at the London show back in September and it was a really great way to meet new industry leaders, and learn all about all what is happening out there in the world of Wi-Fi. And while I won’t be there at this one next week, there are a few people from iBwave going and we would love to meet up with anyone else attending.

So, where can you find us at the venue?

We’ll be hanging out at booth #18 with our 3D Wi-Fi network planning and design software iBwave Wi-Fi on display – be sure to drop by and say Hi. And just in case, also just for fun because I like to 3D model everything I can, I did a quick 3D model of the venue (and Kim, one of our attendees) to show you exactly where we will be.

What are we doing there?

We’re there to meet new people, learn about what is happening in the Wi-Fi industry and of course, to talk about our Wi-Fi network design software iBwave Wi-Fi. But we’re also there to participate and share our thoughts and experience from being in the wireless industry for almost 15 years now – so watch for our VP of Products, Benoit Fleury , participating in the debate “High-Density, New Standards, & Performance” on the second day of the conference. If you are there, be sure to grab a seat!

Who should you look for if you want to meet with us?

We’ve got three iBwavers there – here they are and what the look like so you can easily find them.

**Benoit Fleury, VP Product Line Management**

**Mekki Bennis, Rockstar Sales Engineer**

**Kim Shaar Perra, Channel Marketing Manager**

(note: she will probably not have the flowers while there but she will have those fancy screen cleaners to give away if you drop by!)

Want to setup a meeting with us in advance?

Sure, we’re happy to do that – shoot Kim an email at kim.shaarperra@ibwave.com and we can setup a time to chat.

Enjoy the show if you’re going!

Wirelessly yours,

Kelly

No, Not All Prediction Methods Are The Same

At the WLPC Conference in Phoenix, 2017 (a great conference for Wi-Fi professionals) our Director of Research – Vladan, gave a talk called ‘Algorithms Behind the Heatmaps: A Deeper Dive’ on the different type of prediction algorithms in our iBwave Wi-Fi planning and design software.

Afterward, we got a few comments from attendees saying they didn’t realize that not all prediction models have the same accuracy, or that even the most complex of prediction models can have some measurement of error.

So in the follow-up to that great talk, and to spread the propagation word further (somehow that seems like a pun?), here’s a simplified breakdown of the different algorithms that Vladan covered, and can be found in our wireless network design software, and what they mean.

COST 231

The COST 231 model is a common direct path model used to simulate the performance of an indoor wireless network.

Example venue types it works best for?

Typically COST 231 is best used in non-complex venues where you know the material penetration loss.

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Fast Calculation	Only direct path is accounted for; no reflected or diffracted paths
Good signal accuracy prediction when used with CAD files	Heat map shows unnatural looking ‘shadows’
	The more complex the venue, the less accurate the prediction

What does it look like?

Here is an example of COST 231 in an office environment:

VPLE (VARIABLE PATH LOSS EQUATION)

VPLE is an iBwave patented direct path model that can be used to run prediction with user-defined RF propagation environments (in iBwave this is mostly used on our site survey mobile apps to simulate performance on-site during a survey).

User-defined RF environments can be:

Semi-open (ex: warehouse)
Light (ex: shopping center)
Medium (ex: office)
Dense (ex: hotel)
Very dense (ex: hospital)

The benefit of VPLE is that it can be used directly on images and enables fast calculations and network performance simulations.

Example venue types it works best for?

Non-complex venues (cubicle offices, retail stores, etc)

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Very fast calculations	User needs to define RF propagation environments on the floor plan
Can be used directly on images	Can have limited accuracy (no walls, no penetration loss)
	The more complex the venue, the less accurate the result

What does it look like?

Here is an example of VPLE in an office environment:

RAY TRACING

Unlike COST 231 and VPLE, Ray Tracing takes into account all signal paths: direct path, reflected path and diffracted paths as shown here:

The benefit of Ray Tracing is largely the accuracy you get as a result of it taking into consideration all of the signal paths.

Example venue types it works best for?

Complex venues (stadiums, multi-level subway stations, shopping malls)

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
The best accuracy	Computing-intensive
Can accurately predict signal in complex 3D venues

In iBwave software, we have ‘Fast Ray Tracing’ which strikes a balance between the intensive computing time and the accuracy of the prediction.

What does it look like?

Here is Fast Ray Tracing in an office environment:

A COMPARISON OF ALL THREE MODELS FOR AN NHL ARENA

You’ve seen the propagation for each of the three methods for an office environment, now let’s take a look at the results for an NHL arena:

COST 231

VPLE

FAST RAY TRACING

HOW TO USE EACH OF THE METHODS IN iBwave?

Using iBwave Wi-Fi as an example, you can select which propagation method you will use depending on the venue you are designing for.

To select the prediction method, simply go to the ‘Prediction’ panel, select the Properties icon and go under the ‘Specific’ tab to select the Propagation model.

WANT TO LEARN MORE?

Vladan, our Director of Research, recently did a great talk that goes into more depth about each of these methods, including case studies at the recent WLPC show in Phoenix, Arizona.

You can watch Vladan’s presentation, complete with walkthrough of each case study here.

Enjoy