What does 5G promise for your business? Discover the summary of the webinar dedicated to 5G Private Networks.

The promise of private 5G is above all to offer businesses a fast, reliable and secure network, capable of transmitting and exploiting an ever-increasing amount of data, to meet new challenges and enable them to remain competitive. What opportunities does this solution offer? What are the concrete use cases on site? And what are the major market trends?

On December 7, 2022, Orange 5G Lab in Châtillon organized an event dedicated to 5G private networks. Our experts and guests detailed the gains brought by this solution in terms of security and connectivity. In particular, it improves communication between connected machines and/or between operators, and enables the emergence of a true smart factory or campus, equipped with connected devices and sensors, while preserving data confidentiality. The result is greater site efficiency and profitability. These mobile private networks also offer an alternative to traditional LAN technologies, which are becoming obsolete, expensive and complex to maintain.

For the occasion, we welcomed :

Agnès Wolff, Head of Mobile Private Networks, Orange Business Services
Arnaud Techer, Private Networks Business Development Manager, Nokia
Pierre Roth, Director of Digitalization at Butachimie
Lilian Gaichies, Managing Director, Streamwide

Use case : how does private 5G work on industrial sites?

For Agnès Wolff, director in charge of private networks at Orange Business Services, French companies already have a collection of private networks on their sites today “which are often single-use and single-technology (traditional mobile network, radio network, industrial wifi) and which, in addition to being watertight to each other, are also mostly aging”.

Yet, to regain competitiveness and move into Industry 4.0, companies need a “modern, scalable, standardized wireless network that can support this whole collection of existing networks and equipment”, she explains. That’s where 4G and 5G private networks come in, “ensuring both the existing uses of older networks, while bringing in future uses that aren’t yet fully implemented: predictive maintenance, autonomous vehicles, etc.”

Agnès Wolff goes on to detail the four fundamental needs that lead companies to choose to set up a mobile private network on their sites:

support mission-critical applications requiring low latency and high throughput
meet their commitments thanks to excellent service availability
guarantee confidentiality of exchanges while respecting industrial secrets
benefit from a customized offer to meet specific needs

Pierre Roth, Director of Digitalization at Butachimie, explains what led his company to set up a private 4G (soon to be 5G) network. Having embarked on a digital transition process several years ago, this industrial company, which operates in the nylon chemicals sector, sought to identify its needs in terms of local networks and digital tools: “How can we cover our facilities properly, despite their size and site constraints? How do we connect people in the field?”

Butachimie’s first idea was to install wifi, but this project was abandoned, as “it would have required the deployment of hundreds of antennas due to the size of the site, and the presence of concrete elements and pipes on site”. It was at this point that the company turned to a private mobile network, which “covered the whole site with around 15 antennas, and provided a better level of security”, says Pierre Roth.

In addition, as a Seveso site, Butachimie has security constraints to comply with, as well as certain intellectual property constraints: “We needed 100% system availability, to be able to rely on it at any time, and a very high level of confidence in the network in terms of cyber security” stresses Pierre Roth. All these factors led to the decision to install a mobile private network.

Lilian Gaichies, Managing Director at Streamwide, explains the value of such a network for this communications software supplier: “Our business is to develop critical communications software for tasks that can put human lives at risk. This takes the form of an application that enables Push-to-Talk conversations, including alarm buttons for isolated workers, and geolocation services to warn them when they enter a dangerous zone, providing them with the precautions to take. For all these uses, we’re taking advantage of what the 5G private network brings in terms of latency and security.”

Business impact: what are the major market trends?

According to Agnès Wolff, there are several offers available today: “The example presented by Pierre Roth of Butachimie is the standalone private network model, i.e. the watertight, integrated, completely autonomous network dedicated to the company. This model is particularly well suited to companies with Seveso obligations, and gives them 100% control over their network operations”, she explains.

However, companies can also rely on mass-market 5G networks, which are being rapidly deployed, opening the way to new so-called virtual solutions. Although this type of offering relies on operators’ public networks, “it is possible to set up a truly private network by reserving a guaranteed minimum bandwidth for them, thanks to slicing”, explains Agnès Wolff. In this way, even when the public network is busy, companies can be sure that their critical uses are assured.

What’s more, professionals can merge the best of both worlds with the hybrid solution, taking advantage of the large 5G operator networks while installing dedicated equipment on sites to maintain data: “With the hybrid solution, a User Plane Function (UPF) is added, i.e. equipment that provides local breakout functions to switch from one network to another according to needs”.

Streamwide’s Lilian Gaichies describes the three types of customer demand in the private network market:

A demand for urbanization to organize and secure the network, and provide good quality of service, as part of an end-to-end managed offering.
A demand to transfer pre-existing siloed networks to the 5G private mobile network, sometimes completely freeing themselves from the wired cable network.
A demand for digitization to make tasks run more smoothly, faster and more efficiently, and to improve traceability.

Arnaud Techer, Head of Private Networks at Nokia, also presents his company’s solutions to meet market challenges. Recalling that in many industries, “we still find a lot of wired ethernet-type networks”, it is necessary to address this issue to guarantee machine connectivity. That’s why Nokia has developed an MXIE platform to support the digital transition, with a catalog of business applications for deploying all the new use cases on installations. “In particular, Nokia offers industrial connectors to enable different industrial machines to communicate with each other and on a private 5G mobile network,” says Arnaud Techer on this subject.

What about 5G in the future? What is the participants’ vision of the future?

What does the future hold for 5G private networks? For Lilian Gaichies, the priority is “to move beyond POC (proof of concept), and facilitate the transition from experimentation to full-scale deployment”. In his view, there is a real need for mass deployment, as many of the promises of 5G technology need to be massively deployed in order to become a reality. Then, the long-term trend is to use the uses brought by 5G and related tools “to erase the boundary between the cloud and siloed systems, and to offer new man-machine interfaces by embedding networks in tools and wearables”.

Arnaud Techer estimates that “by 2023 or 2024, 40% of manufacturers in France will switch to private networks, or at least start thinking about it”. He mentions that Nokia is carrying out some interesting experiments in the healthcare sector around telemedicine, as well as in the events sector, with the creation of a private 5G network during the track cycling world championships to enhance the spectator experience (slow-motion and zoom videos). According to him, the outlook is positive for upcoming sporting events: Olympic Games 2024, Rugby World Cup.

Finally, Pierre Roth points out that Butachimie has taken advantage of the deployment of its private mobile network to introduce new uses on site. For example, “by transferring its equipment checklists from paper to tablets and smartphones, thanks to guaranteed network coverage”. This also enables interaction between the control room and operators in the field. What’s more, “we’ve realized that 4G/5G works in certain areas where conventional radio doesn’t work, deep down in our underground facilities, and we’re going to roll this out”, he announces.

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The advent of private 5G, the start of the IoT revolution

Accelerate and optimize IoT efficiency

We are witnessing the emergence of private 5G technology. This technology promises to accelerate the capabilities of IoT (Internet of Things). Unlike public 5G, which is intended for general public use, private 5G offers unique advantages for businesses and organizations across various sectors that wish to fully leverage IoT capabilities.

With private 5G, companies can benefit from significantly faster data rates and reduced latency, enabling them to accelerate processes and improve operational efficiency. For example, in the manufacturing sector, private 5G allows machines to communicate with each other in real-time, facilitating task coordination and reducing downtime.

The features of private 5G speak for themselves: it is a boon for IoT. Indeed, with billions of connected devices expected in the near future, private 5G provides the necessary bandwidth to support this exponential growth. IoT devices can transmit vast amounts of data, and private 5G enables efficient management of this data, paving the way for new applications and innovations.

Compared to public 5G, private 5G also offers an additional level of security and privacy. Companies can control and manage their own networks, thereby reducing the risks of cyberattacks and data breaches. Protecting confidential information is particularly crucial for sensitive industries such as healthcare and finance.

There is no doubt that private 5G is a major advancement that accelerates IoT capabilities. It allows businesses to take advantage of faster data rates, reduced latency, and better security measures. With private 5G, companies can fully harness the potential of IoT and transform their operations to be more efficient and competitive in an increasingly connected world.