Private 5G for manufacturing: how to get it right, right from the start

Data is the lifeblood of manufacturing. That’s why manufacturers in North America and the rest of the world are preparing to make major changes to the networks that support their industrial robots, autonomous material handlers, and other equipment that drives productivity and profitability.

Today, 92% of manufacturing facilities use Wi-Fi for local networks, according to a new Analysys Mason survey co-sponsored by Accedian. By 2024, 76% of manufacturers will have switched to private 5G networks. 

The survey found that manufacturers believe that private 5G will provide greater control over their data. The most important attributes of 5G private networks for manufacturers are reliability (82%) and security (78%). Other top attributes include support for low-latency applications (75%) and high speeds (73%). 

Although some manufacturers already use private 4G, the 3GPP 5G standards include three sets of advanced features designed to meet enterprise requirements:

• Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) is ideal for bandwidth-intensive applications such as 4K surveillance cameras for plant security and monitoring conveyor belts. 
• Massive Machine-Type Communications (mMTC) enables private 5G networks to support up to 1 million devices per square kilometer — more than enough for even the largest manufacturing facilities.
• Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communications (URLLC) provides latencies as low as 1 millisecond, which is ideal for delay-sensitive, mission-critical applications such as factory automation and time-sensitive networking (TSN).

To maximize those capabilities and benefits, manufacturers should start by developing a private 5G network strategy that covers all of the key considerations, including spectrum choices, deployment options, and service assurance tools. In parallel, mobile operators also should pay close attention to these considerations because they directly affect their ability to capitalize on the burgeoning private 5G market opportunity. 

In fact, according to research by Omdia, manufacturers and other enterprises are increasingly choosing systems integrators and managed service providers for private 5G. “Telcos are the lead actor in just 16% of enterprise 5G deals. Private networks specialists are in charge, with over a quarter of deals. Vendors and systems integrators also play. Omdia found that alternative service providers – such as private network specialists – increased their share from 7% in 2020 to 27% in 2021.”

Three deployment options

Manufacturers have three main options for deploying a private 5G network:

• A completely on-premises core network and radio access network (RAN) that are 100% owned by the manufacturer. This is basically the same ownership model as their Wi-Fi networks.
• A virtual, private slice of a mobile operator’s public 5G network. The manufacturer has a high degree of autonomy and control over its slice, and its data is not commingled with traffic from the operator’s other customers.
• A hybrid mix of a dedicated, on-premises network and a private slice of a public 5G network.  

Analysys Mason’s survey found that manufacturers prefer hybrid (45%) or a slice (35%) over owning a network. That’s not surprising. Owning and operating a mobile network is a major responsibility — even for a large manufacturer with a big IT department. And compared to a wireless LAN, a mobile network is fundamentally different and much more complex. This increases risks such as cost overruns and delays not only the launch of the network but also the business benefits that it can provide. 

For mobile operators, all of this means that their private 5G services — sliced or hybrid — must be easy for manufacturers to implement. Otherwise, manufacturers will gravitate toward managed service providers, systems integrators, and specialist vendors that offer a low-complexity alternative. 

Spectrum affects coverage, costs, and more

Spectrum is another key consideration. At high frequencies such as the millimeter wave (mmWave) bands, signals support faster data rates, but they don’t travel as far. So if a manufacturer needs Gigabit speeds, it also will need a higher density of base stations. That means its private 5G network will have higher infrastructure costs than one operating at lower frequencies. 

In the U.S., manufacturers and other enterprises have access to the CBRS band (3550 to 3700 MHz), which the FCC created in 2015 for use by private networks. Also known as Band 48, the CBRS spectrum has three tiers of users. An upcoming blog post will take a deeper dive into CBRS and other key aspects and considerations. For example, compared to the lower, traditional cellular bands, CBRS signals may struggle to penetrate the steel and concrete walls that are common in factories. As a result, some manufacturers might choose the public network slice deployment option in order to get access to the lower spectrum bands that only mobile operators have licenses for.

Don’t fly blind 

Private 5G supports a wide variety of existing manufacturing applications while enabling new ones that aren’t practical with Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and other technologies. In both cases, it’s critical to understand each application’s requirements, such as latency tolerance, and how its traffic behaves.

These criteria help define what the private 5G network must be able to provide. For example, if the network is a slice or hybrid, then the manufacturer can work with the mobile operator to create a service-level agreement (SLA). This preparation and collaboration avoid a lot of headaches later on, such as an operator providing a service exactly as advertised — but not with the latency, throughput, availability, and other KPIs that the application requires to perform as expected. 

Operators that take this collaborative approach also are in a better position to compete against managed service providers, systems integrators, and others that use their understanding of the manufacturing vertical’s use cases and unique requirements as a market differentiator. Operators also could partner with systems integrators and others to gain that vertical expertise. 

Similar advice applies to manufacturers that want 100% ownership. By identifying the KPIs early on, they can ensure that they buy core and RAN infrastructure and monitoring systems that are capable of meeting those requirements.

Regardless of whether a deployment is owned, a slice, or hybrid, the network will need tools to monitor each application’s performance and ensure that those metrics are in line with the KPIs. A variety of pilots like Encode in the UK and several others in Germany are underway to investigate and address these challenges. These pilots bring together service providers and performance assurance vendors like Accedian to deliver accurate and granular performance insights and KPIs to platforms that can help orchestrate and automate the movements of robots and coordinate the manufacturing equipment to maximize productivity. There is much left to be learned and gained.

Learn more about private 5G adoption in manufacturing here.