Further options present initiatives with a variety of challenges and opportunities
The choice of which spectrum to use is the key to the success of a 5G private network, and not all spectrum choices are the same. Selecting the spectrum that suits your needs is best for enterprise digital transformation, but there are attendant tradeoffs. Questions surrounding the private network spectrum remain at the top of the minds for many enterprise executives who begin or go through digital transformation. And the top-line message of the Spectrum stakeholders ’collective collection was, simply put, coexistence.
With extensive institutional experience in Wi-Fi, some enterprises see it as a one-size-fits-all approach to solving every wireless connection problem. Traditional Wi-Fi certainly has a problem with that burden, but the standard is advancing as much as the 3GPP standard, noted Richard Bernhard, National Spectrum Advisor to the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA).
“There is no one or the other requirement,” Bernhard told Arden Media’s Private Networks Global Forum panel.A spectrum of spectrum: Understand your options.“
“They’re consistent,” he noted. “When you underestimate the value and use of Wi-Fi, you get into trouble. You use the tool that makes the most sense when applied correctly. “
“It will depend on the application,” said Sam Darwish, 5G sales manager at Viavi Solutions, an expert in testing and measurement. Simply put, he suggests that there is a demand for installation conditions for different uses.
Asimakis Kokkos, who heads Nokia Enterprise Solutions’ technology ecosystem and also serves as the technical specification group chair for the Multifire Alliance (MFA), noted that businesses are driven by results, not technology. The goal of an enterprise private network should be to achieve business results using whatever technology is best suited.
“This is where 5G is going to play a role here, to fill the gap,” he said.
Tower of Babel
Global enterprises have an additional challenge, Darwish stressed: “While we’ve got a lot of different implementations … you’ve got unlicensed spectrum, you have different technologies in different parts of the spectrum in different countries.”
Enterprises with global footprints will find specific solutions designed for a region that may fail regulatory or technical collection in remote locations. Off-the-shelf and off-the-box solutions will enable some companies to set up solutions on a smaller scale, Darwish said. But navigating those countless spectral challenges, he continued, would be best handled by system integrators and other experts.
“I see opportunities for vendors to offer this as a service rather than an out-of-the-box solution,” he said, adding that this is especially true for companies that run critical manufacturing applications.
Bernhardt predicts the emergence of a class of businesses focused on offering custom solutions for enterprise customers.
“I think it’s the opening of a whole new industry. It allows for some great customizations and localizations that we haven’t seen before you operate networks in specific regions, you can keep them for specific applications and uses, and I think the managed part of it is mature for that, “he said.
“IoT, SCADA [Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition]Agriculture, there are vertical markets all over the place that are just waiting for something like this to come, ”he added.
Another practical consideration for Sam Darwish is the use of unlicensed devices that can wreak havoc on private networks.
“You’re never sure what’s in that spectrum because people all over the world have amplifiers, inverters, lots of different electronics, and we never know where they’ll resonate. You have to make sure the spectrum is clear, it’s safe, make sure it’s not an intervention that’s going to cause a problem, “he said.
Cases for harmonization
With so much diversity in the spectrum, the founder of Tantra Analyst, Prakash Sangam, has expressed concern about the fragmentation of the spectrum in different regions. Spectrum harmonization solution, but he is surprised about the implementation.
“We need to keep our options open, but it would be very helpful for everyone to agree on the same spectrum for the industry … If you look at 3GPP, they have a lot of options to integrate the spectrum, they all have it. I think it takes some courage and effort to try to identify it, and maybe the regulators can play a role here, if they can coordinate between different countries, ”said Cocos of the MFA.
Christian Regnier, chairman, PRIVINNET / EUWENA (European user of the Wireless Enterprise Network Association), noted that there is no EU standard for spectrum harmonization. Germany, France and the United Kingdom have separate spectrum and usage rules for private networks, he explained.
“In some countries, there is no spectrum for your personal network,” he said. The lack of coordination among EU member states around the use of spectrum is a problem that EUWENA has focused on, he added, to enable the use of private networks to drive Industry 4.0 transformation.
Technological innovations have emerged for private networks that enable more efficient spectrum use and easier multi-spectrum coexistence, noted Bernhard, who reformed a consistent theme from other speakers: that it was still a work in progress.
“If we can at least take things and go to low medium and high, low band, mid-band and millimeter waves, etc., and then determine how to use these tools that we are starting to develop, the harmonization country and different uses Will allow for a lot more options and a much more powerful system, ”Bernhardt said.