5G marketing initially focused on the tremendous speed, latency and bandwidth improvements as well as leading-edge features that it offers mobile consumers. But the technology’s potential for serious business use has become a major part of the story, including how private 5G networks might reshape organizational wireless connectivity in the years to come.
What is private 5G?
As the name implies, private 5G is a wireless network that uses the latest generation of cellular technology and is implemented for an organization’s exclusive use. Private 5G is one of many wireless options beyond Wi-Fi that help tech-savvy enterprises use the right technology for their specific wireless needs. IoT applications are a prominent use case.
The building blocks of private 5G include cloud management, radio access hardware — often referred to as a radio access network (RAN) — and the private 5G core, also known as the packet core. Without end nodes, private 5G would have no purpose, so client devices are another essential part of any private 5G system.
Types of private 5G deployment include the following:
- Standalone. In this model, all the needed components form a system inside the organization’s logical and operational boundaries, with dedicated hardware throughout. It’s usually supported in-house by staff who have been trained on it.
- Hybrid. While there can be a range of subtle variations, the primary hallmark of a hybrid private 5G network is the use of both private RAN hardware and public cellular carriers for broader connectivity.
- As a service. As with any as-a-service model, this approach makes the private 5G environment someone else’s responsibility to implement and support. Private 5G as a service might use aspects of the standalone or hybrid models, but in every case it is run by a third party.
How to build a private 5G network
Building a private 5G network follows the same critical-path steps for building any sort of wireless network. It starts with defining requirements: What does the network specifically need to do, and for what end devices? Then qualified staff must design both the radio coverage layer and the core environment based on those requirements.
The design might be as simple as one virtual LAN and one private slice network (PSN) — loosely, the cellular equivalent to the SSID that identifies a Wi-Fi network — or as complicated as many VLANs and PSNs for different use cases. Then comes product selection, installation and design verification testing.
Finally, everything is scrutinized against the beginning requirements to make sure the network does what it’s supposed to at the most granular operational levels. I’ve made it sound easy here, but, in reality, building a private 5G network increases in complexity based on the size of the environment being covered as well as the sophistication of the requirements.
Private 5G vs. Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi can be considered both the dominant and incumbent wireless network access method for enterprises, given its long history and frequent evolution. Nevertheless, private 5G is gaining market share alongside Wi-Fi 6 because its unique characteristics make it better suited for certain uses.
Here’s how 5G and Wi-Fi 6 compare in key areas:
- Coverage. This is an important characteristic of any wireless network, but context matters. Often, Wi-Fi cells are purposely kept very small for better client density, given how popular the 802.11 Wi-Fi standard is, as measured in client count and variety. But as a general rule, a single private 5G access point can cover the same area as a few strong Wi-Fi access points or as many as 15-20 small Wi-Fi cells. Higher power, cellular-type antenna placements and spectrum that has fewer line-of-sight requirements than Wi-Fi all contribute to private 5G’s wider coverage.
- Robustness. Private 5G works in protected spectrum, using cellular protocols for more efficient client roaming and traffic flow. Private 5G is also subject to far less interference than the unlicensed bands where Wi-Fi operates.
- Security. Wi-Fi has the flexibility to be quite wide open or extremely locked down from a network security perspective. With private 5G, all clients need to be “subscribers” at the SIM level, and strong encryption is a requirement. Is one technology better than the other for security? It all comes down to your operational goals.
- Throughput. In theory, both Wi-Fi and private 5G have the potential to deliver fantastic throughput that exceeds that of many wired options. In reality, both technologies tend to be over-hyped compared with their real-world throughput. What users actually get for throughput depends on factors like overall client count, specific client capabilities and distance from access points.
- Client market. There is an order of magnitude more client device types and myriad client capabilities in the decades-old Wi-Fi world. But the private 5G client market is growing. At the same time, private 5G is still largely a specialty technology, with perhaps its biggest initial advantage being in newer IoT devices.
Private 5G deployment considerations
While each organization’s requirements and deployment model of choice will drive the final topology of the private 5G setup, there are several topics and questions to keep in mind when considering private 5G. They include the following:
- Difficult locations. Are there areas needing coverage in which it will be challenging to locate access points and antennas? Port operations and some large industrial sites are examples of scenarios that can require creative approaches to providing service with any wireless technology, including private 5G.
- Client onboarding. Client devices must subscribe to a private 5G network the same way a new cell phone has to be onboarded to a public carrier. Who will do that work, and how will they keep up with it as devices are added and removed?
- End-to-end monitoring and troubleshooting. The new private 5G network will likely be an extension of your existing LAN in some fashion. How will the whole thing be monitored and supported when trouble strikes? Will in-house staff get training on the private 5G side, and can you use your existing monitoring and logging tools?
- Expandability. It’s easy to design a network for today’s needs, only to realize a year later that you painted yourself into a corner for expandability. Any private 5G implementation should satisfy current requirements but also easily accommodate new uses that might develop.
Private 5G might seem exotic because it brings its own language and characteristics. At the same time, it’s just another way of networking. For those who understand its advantages and limits, private 5G has a place in the enterprise.
Lee Badman is a network architect specializing in wireless and cloud technologies for a large private university. He’s also an author and frequent presenter at industry events.
