Nokia Private Wireless Podcast

Early adopters of private wireless networks report strong performance on ROI and strategic benefits Many enterprises are aware of the potential advantages of deploying private wireless network solutions – but remain hesitant about pushing ahead with deployment. They feel they need more clarity around the business case, specifically with regard to the benefits that will be delivered, and the likely return on investment (ROI). Nokia, in conjunction with GlobalData, surveyed 79 industrial enterprises around the world in verticals including manufacturing, transportation, and energy. These companies have already either adopted private 4G or 5G, or are currently evaluating such a move. The results from this research should offer immense encouragement and reassurance to enterprises considering deploying private wireless and industrial edge. Majority of companies report a noticeable – and rapid – ROI More than half of the companies surveyed reported that they had seen their total cost of ownership (TCO) reduced by more than six per cent from an OpEx perspective. Indeed, almost one-third said the TCO had gone down by more than 10 per cent. It is particularly striking to note just how quickly that reduction in TCO was delivered. Almost 80 per cent of the enterprises surveyed saw a return on their investment within six months. The cost impact of moving to private wireless and industrial edge had been, not surprisingly, the principal concern that enterprises had. Many of the decision makers were particularly keen to avoid any CapEx, which in turn throws the onus on 4G/5G partners to offer flexibility in their terms. Most enterprises favor an end-to-end private wireless solution Private wireless networks are complex, and they can comprise a sizeable ecosystem of components, devices, and elements. Are most enterprises looking for basic connectivity, or do they require an end-to-end solution? While some enterprises are taking a modular approach and deploy one component at a time, most of the companies we surveyed prefer an end-to-end approach. This is because there would be fewer suppliers to manage, which would in turn lead to a lower TCO and faster ROI. One driver for smaller enterprises is the lack of in-house technical expertise to take on solution development and integration. The more piecemeal approach is compelling only with organizations that have large in-house development teams. Almost 80 per cent of enterprises we surveyed favored the end-to-end approach to drive specific business outcomes and reduce additional internal development cycles. This is useful information for Nokia, which sets out to simplify this complex process. By delivering all the ingredients for industrial digitalization in one platform, the process is streamlined – and the solution can interface more easily with legacy systems. Private wireless is delivering against other key drivers As well as the desire to reduce TCO and show a healthy ROI, early adopters of private wireless had other targets in mind. Strategic priorities included securing the IT environment, business continuity, streamlining business operations, and meeting ESG targets. However, the most important factor for most enterprises was worker safety. In manufacturing, transportation, and other industrial environments, this is a significant issue. Indeed, 95 per cent of the companies we spoke to named worker safety as a key or major factor in their decision to invest – and 61 per cent of them have seen an improvement of more than 10 per cent in worker safety. Close behind this issue was critical process reliability, which was a key or major factor for 94 per cent of our early adopters. An impressive 74 per cent reported internal material flow efficiencies. Other important considerations were the enhanced insights delivered by automated data collection, increased operational agility, the automation of time-consuming tasks, and improvements in cyber security driven by keeping...

Is the manufacturing sector ready for private wireless networks? Many companies across a variety of industries are now testing and validating private wireless technology through proof of concepts and field trials to understand its benefits. Nokia, in conjunction with ABI Research, recently conducted a survey of more than 1,000 senior executives in organizations across manufacturing segments including automotive, machinery, metal fabrication, electronics, consumer goods, chemical and oil and gas. More than 90% said they were considering 4G/5G as part of their mission-critical, control, and communications network upgrades, while 38% said they would use 4G/5G as their primary technology supporting mission-critical operations. Is there widespread commercial deployment yet? There is clearly considerable interest across many manufacturing sectors. As well as field trials, some manufacturers have driven ahead with commercial deployments. However, the adoption process is still at a very early stage. One reason is that manufacturers typically have a long factory asset lifecycle, which by definition makes the adoption of new technology a slow process. Also, manufacturers are under constant pressure to keep up with demand and production schedules. Introducing downtime by implementing new technology is not an option. It must also be remembered that 5G is an emerging technology designed specifically around industrial applications. Many of the features and functionality that manufacturers want still lie in the future – such as time-sensitive networking, high-accuracy location and positioning, and 5G industrial IoT. There will also be a delay while standards are defined, and while chipset manufacturers produce the silicon for these features and functionality, which then has to be integrated into the relevant machines. All this means that it may be a while before we see widespread adoption. What will the benefits of private networks be for manufacturing? The adoption of private wireless networking, together with edge computing, will be a foundational next-generation infrastructure that will enable manufacturers to become more productive and flexible. It will deliver the ability to upgrade processes that existing technologies use, such as machines being tethered to an ethernet cable, or wireless systems that work only with a certain type of technology, such as Bluetooth or LoRa. LTE/5G private networks are poised to harmonize and simplify future network operations for manufacturers. They will also enable the deployment of more automation, such as mobile robots that can increase the speed and throughput of material handling. Such networks facilitate the use of HD video for inspection for quality control, which brings reduced waste and increased output that help to meet sustainability goals. One of the most important benefits is in the area of worker safety, which is of primary importance to manufacturers. Equipping teams with personal protective gear fitted with wireless sensing devices, for example, means supervisors can be alerted to a hazardous situation such as a gas leak. Examples of Nokia enabling industrial sites to deploy private wireless Butachimie, an operator with a chemical plant in France. It wanted to reduce production costs and simplify its overall manufacturing processes. In partnership with Orange Business Services, Nokia deployed a private 4G wireless network solution that supported systems such as closed-caption TV, push-to-talk, push-to-video, and industrial IoT sensing.Arcelik, a multi-national appliance manufacturer, where Nokia participated in the deployment of Turkey’s first 5G-ready private wireless network at a washing machine manufacturer.Alibaba, the largest retail e-commerce company in the world, for which Nokia deployed a private wireless network in a 30,000-square-meter warehouse connecting more than 100 automatic guided vehicles that delivered a sizeable increase in efficiency. Five tips for a...

Private wireless networks based on 4.9G/LTE or 5G are gaining increasing traction in asset-intensive industries. Nokia is currently providing private wireless solutions to more than 450 customers. However, Wi-Fi has a role within Industry 4.0, even as digital transformation advances on a broad front. Most of those customers are enterprises with brownfield campuses, which means they have legacy wireless connectivity in place, such as Wi-Fi, that cannot simply be switched off. They may also be using Open RAN, and balancing licensed and unlicensed spectrum. Clients using Wi-Fi technology may decide to add industrial 4.9G/LTE and 5G devices for specific use cases – often in contexts where Wi-Fi has limitations with regard to mobility, coverage, and interference management. In circumstances where industrial locations use a mix of connectivity technologies, the enterprises concerned need a solution that will enable them both to extract the maximum value from the different systems deployed and to mitigate the resulting complexity. How does MX Boost work to reduce technological complexity? Nokia MX Boost is a new innovation, a Nokia Bell Labs patented technology that makes it easy to combine private wireless connectivity with Wi-Fi. It delivers an aggregated multi-path connectivity that supports OT use cases. Industries and enterprises benefit from: An optimized throughput in difficult radio conditions.Improved data processing in highly critical applications. MX Boost is an IP-based solution, which means it is extremely simple to implement and has a minimal impact on the network solutions it uses. It is deployed as a bonding and routing application on Nokia’s MX Industrial Edge, and on its multi-modem industrial devices. It works without any changes on wireless access points, making it completely agnostic when it comes to radio technology, spectrum and vendor. Enterprises can run MX Boost in one of two modes to meet the needs of different applications: Aggregation mode: This boosts data rates in difficult radio conditions by splitting and recombining traffic for multiple channels. It includes performance probes on both links to measure in real time the quality of the channels to optimize reliability.Replication mode: This duplicates the data and puts the same packets on all radio links, then automatically selects the best one. The aim is to boost reliability, latency and mobility. What is a typical implementation of MX Boost? The most typical usage of MX Boost is to aggregate Wi-Fi 6 and 4.9G/LTE for business-critical OT applications that require high data rates, capacity and quality in specific hotspots. For example, it takes up to 10 cameras to enable remote control of a port train. A combination of Wi-Fi and 4.9G/LTE bandwidth allows for the exclusive use of 4K cameras. If there is a degradation of the quality of the Wi-Fi connectivity, MX Boost automatically switches back to 4.9G/LTE and to HD cameras. There are many other data-hungry applications, such as high-quality sensor-based applications for multi-metal impurity detection, and augmented reality maintenance applications. In some countries, industries have access to multiple spectrum bands. So MX Boost can be used to combine various radio technology types like 4G and 5G, and multiple spectrum bands such as centimeter wave, millimeter wave, or disparate 4G bands. Enterprises can use MX Boost to replicate data connectivity on two 4.9G/LTE bands to improve reliability, which is interesting in areas with challenging radio conditions such as ports, metal factories, and mines. What benefits does being vendor agnostic bring? This is a significant benefit in an age when many enterprise environments are multi-vendor. MX Boost is based on the IP layer, which delivers huge flexibility for the integration of existing connectivity technologies – including in multi-vendor environments, which is important in the context of supporting legacy Wi-Fi. In the past, it has been...

Pace of private wireless network adoption is set to accelerate dramatically Now that the concept of private wireless networks has been accepted, Nokia is seeing enormous acceleration in its deployment. The company has delivered enough networks to be confident that the economics for an enterprise are excellent compared to Wi-Fi. The ability to address use cases that used to be out of range commercially is increasing. Nokia’s outstanding expertise in this field ensures that a wider range of enterprises, from complex environments to small retail units, can enjoy the benefits of private wireless. Private wireless remains, however, in its early stages, and Nokia is expecting a dramatic acceleration in its deployment. The company has been even more successful than it expected in making the technology easy to use and deploy in a way that suits a wide range of use cases. How Nokia works to ensure smoother private wireless adoption Private wireless is a compelling solution for industries because, as enterprises seek to extract more data from their machines, control them wirelessly, or operate a wider range of business processes, this is possible only with the assistance of highly reliable technologies. Cellular advances such as LTE and 5G are ideal for difficult environments. In the case of ports and factories, for instance, these are large areas with a great deal of metal on site, yet the enterprise concerned requires the accurate collection of uplink data. Nokia is working to make deployment of private wireless networks easier. The company comes to this new landscape with immense experience in telecommunications, but has evolved to be able to delivery technology platforms in two ways: Plug-and-playBespoke The ecosystem is critical to successful implementation The enterprise environment is incredibly diverse and complex, with many different segments and specializations. Each use case requires a high level of expert knowledge. In response, Nokia has created several segments internally to cover areas including energy and industry. Its teams work to establish a depth of industry knowledge that informs, and enables the delivery of, the requirements of enterprises within each particular sector. This is crucial to the process of integrating the right solutions. Its innovation has been assisted by the creation of partnerships with the companies that manufacture the machines at the heart of each network. As a result, the enterprise in question can take delivery of a network that works immediately to a super-reliable standard to the commercial benefit of the client in question. Pre-integration in this way ensures the creation of a joint road map. An end user – a factory, port, mine, or other complex environment – may have multiple suppliers. But thanks to this greater degree of technological alignment at an earlier stage in the process, that end user does not need to worry about performance, reliability and interoperability. As a result, Nokia has added a high level of enterprise connectivity to its existing pre-eminence in telecommunications and associated technology – while remaining open-minded to the need to adapt to future requirements. Indeed, it is essential to accept that 5G represents a learning curve for all parties. Ultimately, enterprises want to invest in technologies that are future-proof and 5G – and 5G SA in particular – are particularly strong in that respect. If a business begins today on this journey with LTE, it can deploy systems that will be reusable and expandable with 5G in perpetuity. The other key factor with regard to 5G SA is that it is making a significant difference with regard to affordability. The differentiators in Nokia’s private wireless offering There are three key elements that underpin the delivery of Nokia’s 5G capability: RadioIndustrial connectors Spectrum Ultimately, Nokia is convinced that the application of private wireless across industries and sectors is proving even more valuable...

How mining demonstrates the positive impact of private wireless Few industries showcase the benefits of a private wireless network more vividly than mining. This is a sector in which driverless 300-tonne trucks with wheels two meters wide can be operated from a control center hundreds of kilometers away. Health and safety is a critical concern in an environment that features monster vehicles and giant machines – and frequent blasts inside a pit. Underground, the challenges are even more significant. There are thick rock walls, narrow corridors and a constantly changing route. It is simply not feasible to cover a whole site with a single antenna. The importance of digital transformation in mining There are four interconnected KPIs for any mining operator: SafetySustainabilityProductivityEfficiency The drive to meet these KPIs underpins most of the transformation projects in the mining industry. If there is a safety incident within a mine, production is halted. Stopping for just a few hours can mean the loss of hundreds of thousands of tonnes, which impacts on both productivity and the bottom line. An illustration of the impact of private wireless on a mining operation Let’s look at the effect of the deployment of a private LTE-powered autonomous haulage system in an Australian mine. Its operator has more than 50 connected trucks working on collecting the ore that has been excavated. Merely by installing the private LTE, the mine saved more than €10million through reducing the number of Wi-Fi points required. It also saw a productivity increase of about 75 hours per year per truck – which translated into 1.5 million tonnes more excavated each year. That in turn meant a top-line growth of €50million just from the improved connectivity. The operator reported a 90 per cent drop in the number of unplanned stops. Because communication with each truck was improved, the amount of fuel consumed dropped too. There was a saving of up to 80,000 liters of diesel per truck per year. As well as a huge cost benefit in an era of rising energy prices, this also had a big impact on the sustainability of the operation, to the tune of a carbon reduction of 236 tonnes. How Nokia has pioneered private wireless in mining Mining was one of the first verticals where Nokia demonstrated the viability of private wireless networks, more than ten years ago. Nokia’s first project was rolled out in the Pilbara region of Australia, a major mining area. Nokia now has more than 35 mining customers, including four out of the five biggest multi-national operators. Customers appreciate the benefits in terms of high bandwidth, low frequency, built-in security, quality of service and, most important of all, ultra-reliability. Business continuity is crucial to mining, so a reliable network, combined with edge computing capabilities, is a winning mix. The installation of a single private wireless network can bring benefits in terms of mission-critical data applications, remotely operated machines, CCTV, video streaming, communications and a range of Internet of Things applications. Having one single network infrastructure, which uses private wireless 4.9G or 5G technology, and that works both above the surface and underground, brings significant advantages. Underground is more challenging – radio planning and an appreciation of the tunnel structure are crucial – but ultimately the same network can be used. Five tips for mining companies considering a digital transformation 1/ Start by consulting your operations teams. It is essential that your private wireless network solution helps to meet those key KPIs of safety, productivity and efficiency. Private wireless should not be technology for the sake of technology. 2/ Think end-to-end when you start deploying private wireless. You need to work with your whole ecosystem, not just the shovels, diggers and autonomous trucks. 3/ When you are looking at use cases, start...

How can an industrial site make the right choice of private wireless network? Several varieties of private wireless networks are available – and there is also a choice of the types of provider that can deliver such a service. Our analysis of the sector has generated insight on the process facing a business or industrial site looking to make a decision on the best way to proceed. What types of private wireless coverage are available? Essentially, there are three options available to any commercial organization that is weighing up the desirability of private wireless: Local area: Ideal when there is a need for coverage around a particular site such as an airport, retail centre, industrial estate or mining operation. Wide area: Companies such as tech logistic firms may need connectivity at their headquarters and distribution centers while also requiring coverage on a nationwide level. Field area: Some firms need connectivity away from their base, but only in locations where they have assets. Examples include rail networks. Overall, private networks are the best solution for industrial sites. However, there may be instances when it is economical to use a slice of a public network when it comes to wide area connectivity. In a smart city, for example, it may make sense to use a public network for non-urgent applications such as parking meter communication. Why is private wireless the best choice in local area instances? There are three reasons why this option is ideally suited for industrial sites: Familiarity: Such operations are used to effectively owning their local area networks. They are accustomed to having oversight of their connectivity and this allows them to continue doing that. Performance: Many industrial sites are in non-urban areas, which results in less than optimal coverage. A dedicated local deployment designed to connect key elements of operational technology (OT) is ideal and will deliver the requisite levels of latency and capacity.Reliability: An essential consideration for OT critical applications. Even with dedicated small cells inside an industrial site, a connection to a public network tends to increase the latency. What are the various types of supplier of private wireless networks? Interest in private wireless has grown significantly in the industrial sector in the last year or so. And, with more than 13 million industrial sites potentially requiring such an installation, the market place is becoming increasingly crowded. Several different genres of supplier exist: Telecom vendors: Private wireless is clearly an area of opportunity for such operations. Indeed, Nokia was one of the trend-setters in private wireless when it deployed networks for Rio Tinto at an open mine in Australia in 2015. Mobile operators and CSPs: They have a lot to offer in this space. They have spectrum, expertise in managing 4G and 5G networks that people use every day, and good existing relationships with the enterprise space. They can also offer critical connectivity nationwide, and many have a dedicated business arm providing enterprise IT and system integration. CSPs from the IT space: There are companies that effectively deploy a lot of edge cloud servers within enterprise. Our research shows there’s a high degree of trust from enterprise in eco-system players, especially in areas such as mining and manufacturing where network connectivity is a key component of a complete end-to-end solution.IT players and system integrators: Firms such as Accenture or DXC can deliver private wireless solutions to customers.System integrators and consulting firms: They are interested in private wireless as a key enabler for related industries. Access to spectrum is a key private wireless network consideration Increasing numbers of countries are releasing spectrum that can be used for this purpose. France was one of the first, as were Germany, the UK and the US. However, in markets that have not release vertical spectrum yet,...

What trends will shape the future of the private wireless 4G/LTE and 5G market in 2022? The Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the enterprise world. Not least because it has acted as a wake-up call regarding the importance of accelerating digital transformation. Everyone in the enterprise market, from vendors to the enterprises themselves, now understands that such a transformation is increasingly the result of a combination of innovative technologies. These include IoT, edge, 5G, AI and ML. In this pandemic-affected world, enterprises accept they must use any technology as part of a strategy to deliver a clear business outcome. They also need to be flexible in their processes and adapt to rapid change. What does this mean for the future of private networks and digital enterprises in 2022? Should we expect momentum in the private 4G/LTE and 5G networks market? This market continues to grow significantly. According to a study by Omdia, in 2021 network roll-outs represented 20 per cent of all announcements. Growth is no longer restricted to first movers such as the USA. We are now seeing deployments in an increasing number of new countries such as Denmark and Poland. Deployments are becoming larger and more complex as private networks deliver the right RoI to enterprises. Will the appetite of enterprises for larger and more complex private wireless deployments increase? When private 4G/LTE and 5G networks were a novelty, organizations would start with a POC or trial. They might deploy in a single site or test a few use cases. Now, with private networks delivering the desired results, verticals such as mining and ports have deployed private 4G/LTE and 5G networks across multiple sites and countries. There is similar momentum across all verticals, including manufacturing. Omdia’s survey of 451 enterprises found that by 2023, 34 per cent will have deployed a solution in more than five sites – significantly higher than the current figure of five per cent. Should we expect to see private wireless networks leveraging developments in edge computing, cloud computing and cloud environment? This is one of the most exciting trends set to mature in 2022, which is shown in several examples: Cloud-based network monitoring platforms are becoming ever more relevant and popularEdge and cloud players are showing increasing interest; 50 per cent of enterprises will need cloud computing and storage as part of any private 4G/LTE and 5G network dealIn this fragmented environment, edge computing as a distributed computing model to analyse data closer to its source brings latency and cost benefitsOT applications will need different requirements in latency, workload, ML/AI support, data security and confidentiality – a combination of edge and cloud is the only way to support them fully What challenges can we expect in the private wireless market? Some are specific to this market: The ongoing struggle to educate enterprises on the benefits of cellularThe challenge of integrating private 4G/LTE and 5G networks with existing IT systems and connectivity solutions Others derive from macro trends: Private 4G/LTE and 5G networks have been hit by chip shortages because of geo-political issues, the pandemic, and businesses double-purchasing to head off uncertaintyThis leaves vendors in an expanding market facing growing uncertainty over chipset availability Will 2022 be the year when 5G truly arrives? Although 5G has been a hot topic for a while, it is still moving slowly into this market. Release 16 in 2020 officially heralded the new era of private 5G, but this is yet to fully materialize. The expansion of 5G in supporting industrial specific features and requirements will remain gradual. Barriers to adoption include the lack of a wide system of 5G devices, especially in the industrial environment. Until chipset vendors fully commit roadmaps and in-depth resources to accelerate this ecosystem, the pace of adoption will...

How MulteFire is creating and supporting opportunities in private wireless Nokia, along with Qualcomm, created the MulteFire Alliance in 2015. Its purpose was to create a global ecosystem for the deployment of 4G LTE in configurations that used unlicensed spectrums, and to create MulteFire specifications. In the years since, these specifications have been embedded into the 3GPP standards. One example is the additive Listen Before Talk, known as LBT, which helps to ensure smart co-existence with local wi-fi networks. Industries have realised they need cellular connectivity, particularly LTE or 5G, to digitalize operations and activate new use cases. As a result, private wireless networks are now deployed across the world. However, in some cases deployment faces a bottleneck in the form of spectrum. In some countries, there is limited LTE spectrum; in the UK, for instance, there is less than 20MHz of spectrum bandwidth available for industries, which need a lot of capacity for data-hungry applications such as video surveillance. Some other nations do not have a coherent policy in terms of LTE license allocations for industrial sites. They are often too expensive, or not yet adapted to the context. There is also an increasing demand for temporary LTE cellular networks for events, field hospitals or even construction sites. MulteFire delivers a solution to all these problems. It has 450MHz of bandwidth in the 5GHz frequency band, comes with zero cost, is easy to access and is available in most countries. In the context of the scarcity of spectrum, MulteFire is a gold mine. MulteFire is much more than an enhanced version of wi-fi MulteFire is unlicensed, and it leverages some of wi-fi’s spectrum bands. It is, however, far more than simply “wi-fi on steroids”. There are some critical advantages to MulteFire, particularly in the context of Industry 4.0. How Nokia’s MulteFire modem is blazing a trail Nokia recently announced industry’s first certified MulteFire user equipment, the MulteFire modem. This is a field router that connects to assets such as sensors and machines via USB or Ethernet, and enables them to connect to a private wireless network using MulteFire certified access points. We use the same architecture and core network as our private wireless network, the Nokia Digital Automation Cloud. The combination of MulteFire, where no spectrum authorization is needed, and NDAC makes it simple for anyone to deploy a private network anywhere in the world. Nokia is recognized by major industry analysts as not just a leader, but the leader in this field. We have several hundred customers and are adding dozens more every quarter. Our expertise and experience in the various sectors, regions and countries sets Nokia apart. While LTE licenses can be a barrier in some countries, with MulteFire it is possible to deliver connectivity in any country in the world. This new innovation will drive the MulteFire ecosystem via the MulteFire Alliance. For more insights around all things private, 4.9G, LTE and 5G, please contact the private wireless team at Nokia.

Ten questions you should ask when considering deploying a private wireless solution Is your enterprise contemplating deploying a private cellular network? There could be many reasons for doing so. Maybe you require dedicated bandwidth for large amounts of data, or need high speeds and reliability and low latency. Whatever the reason, it’s unlikely that you will have the in-house depth of expertise required to launch and operate such a network in the face of the overarching and day-to-day challenges involved in its use. If you decide to bring an expert partner on board, there are ten questions you need to ask. These relate to their experience, technological capability and commitment to the market place for the long term. 1/ Does the vendor have experience of private wireless deployment? Your potential partner should be able to prove their expertise by providing quantifiable SLAs – and a history of compliance with similar SLAs with existing customers. They should demonstrate their ability to meet KPIs on areas such as repairs and service, plus the bandwidth achieved for different traffic loads and conditions. There should also be endorsements from customers and eco-system partners. Ideally, they should have their own solutions, rather than merely being able to assemble third-party elements. 2/ Does your potential partner have a track record of wireless deployment in your sector? Of course, all enterprises are unique and you’re unlikely to find a one-size-fits-all solution. Your potential partner needs to demonstrate that it has worked successfully with customers in multiple industries – with an associated versatility that enables them to customize the network to meet your outcomes. 3/ Is your potential vendor committed to the private 5G business? You’re about to make an investment in a network that needs to last. So it’s important to choose a partner with skin in the game for the long haul. Is their private network department well resourced, with a broad range of in-house features? You should also check whether or not the company participates in industry standards groups and associations relevant to private wireless. 4/ Can their private cellular network solutions be adapted to your needs? Can they strike the right balance between standardization and customization? There should be flexible Opex and Capex models as options, and support for all types of spectrum – licensed, unlicensed and shared. There should be simplicity, but also the ability to address individual use-case requirements. 5/ Does your potential private wireless partner have a solution mindset? You need to see a desire to take responsibility for securing and supporting all the elements of your solution, along with SLAs and a long-term commitment to the process. Take the example of a manufacturing enterprise; will your partner explicitly support areas such as predictive maintenance, asset condition monitoring, and remote configuration and control? 6/ Does the vendor have proven performance specific to your technology? This is becoming a crowded market place, with numerous start-up software companies advocating cutting-edge solutions. You need to be comfortable that any potential for innovation can be balanced against the shortcomings of a shorter track record. Do you want to be with the latest and greatest, or a vendor with decades of experience, investment and customer endorsements? 7/ Is future-proofing part of your private LTE network solution? Flexibility and innovation will be key in this space going forward. Some deployments that begin as LTE will need to become 5G in time. You need to feel sure that the deployments you’re thinking about in 2021 and 2022 will still be viable in 2031 and 2032. Any potential partner also needs to show an evolution path that means your network and its technology will evolve smoothly to meet future needs without needing to be ripped out and replaced. 8/ Is your private wireless partner viable and sustainable...

Why Nokia is so excited about 5G and private wireless technology At Nokia, we are very excited about 5G. This is the first technology of its kind that has been designed from the start with industry in mind. Over time, it will bring significant improvement to almost 100% of industrial use cases. That’s why we have launched the industry’s first commercial, 5G SA private wireless solution. We felt the time was right because the 5G architect of the future is set to be the base for all industrial innovation. Its features include ultra reliability, low latency, time-sensitivity and communication. All of these factors represent a leap forward compared to 4.9G and LTE. We want to provide the whole system and our partners with a highly reliable system that can really help to accelerate the 5G ecosystem. We want to show them what 5G can do, so that the ecosystem players can integrate this chipset inside their next generation systems. That element of ecosystem will help to kick-start the market. Without industrial systems and devices, you are quite limited in what you can do in real operation with a private 5G network. On top of the need for 5G spectrum, and the fact that industrial OEMs have a slow refresh cycle, we don’t foresee an overwhelming volume of 5G private wireless pick-up until about 2025. And 5G private wireless might not overtake private wireless based on 4.9G LTE until the end of the decade. 4.9G capabilities mean a smooth transition to 5G One of the reasons for this is that 4.9G includes capabilities that will stay on in the age of 5G. For example, LTE-M and Narrowband IoT provide the very deep and wide connectivity for low power, but long battery life, sensor – which is really important for many enterprise applications. Most private wireless solutions today that run 4.9G can and will provide a smooth evolution to 5G, which will be important in the coming years. 4G dates back several years but, like a good wine, it has got better with age. With every new release from 3GPP, the technology has been enhanced. Plenty of critical connectivity and IoT features have been added, with the result that the most recent version was called 4.9G. Automotive sector in top gear for the drive to 5G private networks To put things in perspective, the private cellular market in 2021 remains about LTE rather than 5G in real terms. While key pieces of the 5G ecosystem are being developed, the good news is that 4.9G LTE can handle the lion’s share of current industry use cases. Most of Nokia’s customer deployments in the last couple of years have been very much based on 4.9G LTE, and we anticipate that many of our customers will be running 4.9G LTE – maybe with 5G – for at least the next five to ten years. Private wireless based on 4.9G LTE already provides massive leaps in capability and performance compared to former or existing wireless technology. Nevertheless, there are some specific markets where there is a bigger drive towards 5G than others. That early demand is particularly visible in the automotive manufacturing industry. The reason for this is that OEMs are designing today the factories that will build cars in five or six years’ time. They are eager to get their hands on a private wireless 5G capability that will drive the 5G industrial ecosystem space and ensure that when they build those factories, they can instantly take advantage of 5G. Quest for innovation in cellular communication is nothing new We should not forget that the history of cellular communication technology goes back nearly 30 years. Both 4G and 5G come from a standards body called 3GPP, which represents a large group of different shareholders, both in the telecoms space and the industry. The first technology that came from this group was GSM, or 2G, back in 1992, which is when the mobile phone became mass market. That was followed by 3G UMTS, before the creation of what we call today LTE or 4G in 2008. The common DNA for voice technology was the...

Why private wireless networks are a compelling choice over wi-fi Modern industrial enterprises have a variety of connectivity requirements, including those related to the conduct of their business and machinery. At most sites, there is a combination of two different requirements: Private wireless technology focuses on the OT side of communication and applications, while the IT side is handled more by familiar tech such as ethernet or wi-fi. In an era when there is a need to connect increasing numbers of assets, the OT team expects from wireless the same level of performance and reliability that used to be delivered by wired connectivity. While wi-fi has improved significantly with the advent of the wi-fi 6 standard, but that has focused mostly on increased capacity and user performance. There are still some significant challenges when it comes to meeting OT requirements. In terms of reliability of performance, private wireless networks make a major difference. Not all applications need extremely low latency, but it needs to be stable. When you plug a LAN cable into a machine, you are almost guaranteed to get 100mg performance – and OT teams expect that from wireless technology. Private wireless delivers added value in security and mobility 4G and 5G technology has raised security standards, which – allied with the use of SIM cards and end-to-end encryption – makes for extremely robust systems. Another aspect that is important for OT is the ability to have a single wireless network for all applications. This is especially beneficial in industrial sites that have multiple networks for different applications. The final important consideration is mobility. At a location such as a port or a mine, the mobile credentials of 4.9G LTE networks are crucial when it comes to reliability, low latency and a high data rate. Whereas wi-fi is geared for IT and office communications, private wireless is better suited to the critical OT piece. Three reasons why wi-fi is still seen as a contender The tipping point at which private wireless makes sense from a cost perspective The picture is complex, but our research suggests that the increased cost in terms of spectrum, sales and the core network are offset once you have an industrial site of more than 25,000 square metres of indoor space. However, at any industrial site of any size that has a challenging radio environment, a private wireless network is clearly a superior solution… Case study 1: A deployment that offered a point of comparison We worked on a deployment in North America at a very large manufacturing plant with an extremely high ceiling and many large, long metal machines. We learned anecdotally that the planning and network design aspect of the proposed rival wi-fi solution was more expensive than our complete offer for private wireless network. There were two principal reasons: The enduring assumption that wi-fi is a simple, plug-and-play technology is erroneous, especially in complex industrial environments. Case study 2: Challenges in the open pit mining space This was another example of a complex radio environment. While there is a slightly steeper learning curve on private wireless – despite the considerable amount of work Nokia has done in this space – ultimately it is a far more compelling choice. In a difficult, fast-moving environment with metal machines, partitions and a mine that expands due to explosions, drilling and digging, a private wireless network is a deploy-and-forget solution. In contrast, wi-fi in such a location requires constant management. The teams maintaining the wi-fi had to return to the site on an almost weekly basis to readjust the network in line with the new topology of the mine. This was another context where the ability of a private wireless network to be the single wireless network for all the applications on site was highly valuable. That includes legacy P25 or TETRA critical voice systems, which can be upgraded with...

Your introduction to the world of private wireless networks The topic of private wireless is an area of increasing interest. As an introductory overview of the subject, let’s take a look at the following: The industries that stand to benefit most from private networks Certain industries are in position to benefit greatly from the introduction and growing prevalence of private wireless networking. These poster-child use cases include: Can 4G, 5G and wi-fi co-exist? As we move forward into the 5G era, there will be many ways in which a large number of devices on a network can be supported more efficiently – particularly on the carpeted side of an enterprise. However, that is not to say that cellular technology will simply replace wi-fi. Wi-fi is tried and tested and has a very large footprint – and, given that it leverages unlicensed spectrum, it is inherently less expensive. Cellular technology will be able to complement systems in the non-carpeted environments of an enterprise, where things have been less well connected. The conclusion has to be that wi-fi, 4G and 5G will work well together. Broad range of options available – one size does not fit all The key consideration when it comes to deploying private networks is that there is no right or wrong answer. One size definitely does not fit all. There are several options: Much depends on how savvy your company’s IT team is. Additionally, you may not want to treat this as a Capex expense and would rather treat it as an operational expense. The good news is that there are several options available to enterprises wishing to deploy private networks. Where does Nokia stand in the market in terms of its value-add? Independent experts have noted that Nokia has invested more heavily than its traditional competitors such as Huawei, Ericsson and Samsung. The Nokia enterprise business unit has been busy for some time and has achieved several hundred customer wins. Inevitably, those competitors will continue to advance their propositions. However, the current conclusion is that, with its experience and the IP assets at its disposal, Nokia is leading the charge in terms of the capabilities available when it comes to private wireless networking. For more information: Private wireless | Nokia To listen to our other episodes: Nokia Private Wireless audio library | Nokia

2020 was a pivotal year in the evolution of the #privatewirelessnetwork sector. In this podcast, we discuss how the environment around private #wireless took some significant steps forward. For one thing, traditional #CSPs realised it was important for them to create a strategy and an offering in the private wireless space. Nokia has partnered with AT&T and Verizon, large CSPs in the US, and others in Europe. Many companies that rely on a CSP for nationwide #connectivity would prefer to source a private wireless #network through their trusted CSP. #Industry4.0 projects tend to be substantial in scale and, for them to be executed well, an enterprise’s IT and OT teams need to come together. We are seeing increasing evidence that the IT/OT divide is being bridged. Previously, the OT needs of asset-heavy industry were driven by the OT team. But following the transformation from analogue to #digital that came with the end of Industry 3.0, the involvement of IT became essential. 2020 was the first year in which we saw this happening. Increasing numbers of company-wide Industry 4.0 #projects are now taking place where the OT and IT teams come to the table together to define a project and work towards a common goal. This is a very important trend that will help to accelerate the adoption of private wireless in today’s market. However, it would not be accurate to say that private wireless has become a mass market yet. This is despite the fact that Nokia estimates that the potential market could benefit up to 15 million #commercial venues, and that increasing numbers of enterprises are making new private #LTE and #5G deployments. It is clear that private wireless is a concept that people in our industry now understand. It is also clear that many stakeholders are starting to pay close attention to the potential that mobile technology has for transforming the industry – in the same way that #mobile phones have transformed consumers’ lives in the last 30 years. But it will take many years before this is a mass market, even though there are obvious signs of acceleration in #adoption. Between 2015 and the end of 2019, Nokia secured about 120 customers in this space. In 2020 alone, that number almost doubled. Now tune into our podcast to hear more.