Private 5G promises the performance, flexibility, security and ROI to be a leading option for enterprise networking. At MWC, we gathered a panel of industry experts to determine the state of private 5G and remaining challenges.
Moderated by Sheheryar Khakwani (SK), Senior Vice President of Partner and Portfolio at Rakuten Symphony, the panel included:
Below are some of the highlights of this discussion.
A key question posed to the panel was whether enterprises see a measurable impact from private 5G PoCs that would justify a larger deployment. The best ROI comes from organizations that have a very specific business objective for the technology. Companies with softer objectives didn’t see that much benefit.
ROI was also best when private 5G networks supported both IT and OT workflows. This can be hard to deploy in some organizations where IT and OT (operational technology) are under separate management. But the companies that deployed their networks to serve both use cases had the best ROI.
Cisco’s Everson said: “… to be successful, you need to take it from a full IT and OT standpoint.”
Another way to improve ROI, mentioned by Capgemini's Arnab, is to consider evolution in private 5G small cell's compute and networking architectures, which make it possible to co-host enterprise applications on common infrastructure as 3GPP workloads. These small cells architectures can support, for example, vision models, optimized foundation model execution, sensing and IoT capabilities making it possible to host various categories of enterprise applications, across use cases like asset tracking or intrusion detection, geo-fencing and generative use cases, etc. “This makes the private 5G network more successful,” he said.
While private 5G stands out from enterprise Wi-Fi for its support for deterministic data flows, that doesn’t mean the two technologies can’t coexist. Benson described the network that a rail operator built using 5G for critical communication and Wi-Fi for non-critical data flows, including video. He said: “We see both coexisting, but when it comes to deterministic, critical communications, 5G is the go-to connectivity platform.”
Private 5G is ideal for manufacturing applications. But the biggest challenge is the interference that comes from metal, moving machinery, ATVs, AMRs, EMI and other manufacturing noise. This can negatively impact signal coverage.
This noise typically impacts peak speed and latency, which is less important to many manufacturers than the network’s predictable ability to support business outcomes, such as accelerating workflow, smoother handovers, and worker and equipment safety. This is where Private 5G excels.
Said Day: “Customers want predictable performance. That's what they want from private 5G on the manufacturing floor. And that's very important to them because they… want to tie (network metrics) to the business outcome.”
SK concluded the panel discussion with an optimistic note about the potential for private 5G to make a difference in enterprise networks. Watch a video of the full discussion here to get more expert insights from the panel.
