Looking for the enterprise customers' use cases nowadays will likely employ a combination of enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC), and massive Machine-Type Communications (mMTC).  

Manufacturers already deploy sensors across the factory production lines, AGVs/AMRs for manufacturing automation, and predictive maintenance with sensors built in to detect equipment malfunction and rectify proactively and avoid costly outages.  

Unlike the traditional WiFi connectivity that incurs coverage and capacity constraints, 5G brings new capabilities to the enterprise communications landscape, such as: 

• Enterprises have WiFi-ready infrastructure for hotspots. However, this may not scale economically compared with the power output and wider coverage of cellular network radios, especially outdoors and in open areas
• Much lower and consistent latency pattern, relying on the high availability for 5G ecosystem introduced by cloud-native and software-based architecture
• Seamless mobility through sophisticated handover algorithms that supports the demand for high speeds when it comes to AGVs/AMRs, drones, and UAV
• 5G is natively more secure. It provides various security platform services such as end-to-end user plane security, security to MEC nodes, and external PDN connectivity 

This shall imply some network complexity regarding deployment, integration, and life cycle management. But thanks to the Open ecosystem and cloud-native approach, enterprises and CSPs will have much better control over the entire wireless infrastructure. 

 

Open RAN 

The opportunity of transforming enterprises is growing every day. Open RAN's open interfaces will continue to stimulate innovation from smaller vendors challenging the vendor lock-in associated with the legacy macro-network suppliers.  

These new entrants supply an increasingly diverse range of radio units, RAN, and Core software that will help drive the private 5G market forward with solutions suitable for mass-scale private enterprise use cases and custom-made high-end use cases for many vertical applications and industries.  

The enterprise edge services market is expected to feature many greenfield applications and opportunities. 5G, SDN, Open RAN, disaggregation, virtualization, and cloudification are essential technologies for enabling state-of-the-art 5G connected edge platforms and deploying a wide range of enterprise edge services fostering some vertical applications such as Remote surveillance, predictive maintenance, shipments, remote monitoring, etc.  

On the other side, we would say that the bigger the opportunity, the bigger the challenges for Telco operators to incubate a cost-efficient private 5G deployment, not locked to specific vendors, and allowing flexible deployment scenarios and geo requirements. 

Open RAN proves to create a positive business impact regarding: 

• Edge native Open networks acceleration of green field 5G deployment with faster time to market and competitive TCO
• Solution providers can install edge applications for multiple vertical user cases and enterprises.  

 
Here is one of the great 5 G's value addition to industrial operations use cases and will enable flexible management of edge and cloud resources, such as the on-demand deployment of applications or data transfer.  

 

Challenges of Open RAN 

Open RAN and enterprise edge grow together, and both will play a vital role in digital transformation, industry 4.0 use cases, and how people live. From that perspective, Open networks impose some challenges while MNOs and enterprises try to accelerate Private 5G adoption. Some of these challenges are: 

Integration and Testing 

Existing enterprise IT systems can represent an obstacle to integrating a private 5G network. 

Security 

Specific security measures must be put in place to protect the private 5G network from cyber threats. 

Spectrum Availability 

Legal authorities should assign private spectrum to enterprises. Now comes the urge to define a strategy to maximize gains from the industry 4.0 opportunity to capture a sizeable share of the industry 4.0 opportunity.  

Operators must accelerate the test and build a connectivity portfolio, set up co-innovation projects with clients, and leverage partnerships with the 5G ecosystem. 

 

Implementation of 5G 

To exploit 5 G's potential to transform organizations, industrial companies, and telecom companies digitally need to collaborate more closely. They need to identify the areas where 5G can add value, both in the immediate and longer-term, and design the proper implementation roadmap.  

By working closely, the two sides can avail themselves of the full potential of this transformative technology. So, the role of private 5G is clear :

• Much lower latency for mission-critical applications compared to public networks
• Faster deployment due to flexibility in network architecture with low TCO
• With high flexibility, the network is fully customizable to meet the enterprise business requirements
• Operations automation through autonomous devices and machines
• Enhanced and reliable connectivity compared to public networks and traditional WiFi 

Finally, the private 5G ecosystem players must collaborate to adopt this new, hyper-growing connectivity technology. Yet, some unaddressed topics and challenges, such as life cycle management, network scalability, integration with cloud services, security, and cost-effectiveness, need more focus soon. 

 

This article was contributed by our expert Hazem Tarek Mahmoud

 

Frequently Asked Questions Answered by Hazem Mahmoud

Q1. What will be the impact of IoT in the 5G era? 

Almost every industry can be transformed with cellular IoT while many use cases can be supported by 5G due to the high bandwidth, small data volumes for these devices, extreme coverage of 5G in lower bands, and, more importantly, the efficient energy consumption compared to its predecessor (LTE).  

By accelerating 5G adoption, enterprises are encouraged to transform their businesses and introduce IoT commercial devices that span various types of meters, sensors, trackers, and wearables in many different industries, including utilities, automotive, transport, logistics, agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare, warehousing, and mining. 

Q2. What is the market forecast for a private 5G network? 

The global market is primarily driven by the growing need for ultra-reliable low-latency connectivity, which will represent a great catalyst to drive private 5G network growth.  

According to numbers, the Private 5G market was valued at USD 1.61 billion in 2022 and is projected to witness compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 51.2% from 2023 to 2030.  

But what's interesting here is that the market demand traction grows exponentially in the Americas, followed by the Asia Pacific region, with many players wanting to participate and be the early adopters for P5G to enterprises. The focus is on specific use cases to accelerate the footprint, such as smart infrastructure (smart utilities, smart citizen services, and smart buildings), and the smart manufacturing or mission-critical applications that come together and are strongly reliant on numerous technologies such as cloud, data management, sensors, and mobility.  

In a deeper look at the prominent players of the global private 5G network market involve AT&T Inc., BT Group, Cisco Systems, Inc., Deutsche Telekom, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Juniper Networks, Nokia Corp., Samsung, Ericsson, T-Systems International GmbH, Verizon Communications, Vodafone Ltd., and ZTE Corp. 

And by segment component, many studies concluded that the hardware segment held the maximum share of the private 5G market in 2022 (this includes bare-metal servers, radios, Antennas,etc.) 

Finally, it is worth mentioning that the total addressable market for private 5G is expected to approach US$47 billion by 2030. This is driven primarily by deployments in, most importantly (manufacturing, energy generation, and healthcare), which are driving deployments, as they will account for almost 70% of private 5G revenue by 2030. 

Q3. How does 5G impact the cybersecurity risk landscape? 

With the ramp-up of 5G deployments worldwide, a proper cybersecurity protection mechanism should exist. It is well known that 5G comes with great benefits; however, it imposes cyber threats and security risks landscape will expand considerably for CSPs and enterprises. Indeed, 5G networks are more vulnerable to cyberattacks than their predecessors.

The network has moved from centralized, hardware-based switching to distributed, software-defined digital routing. 5G further complicates its cyber vulnerability by virtualizing higher-level network functions formerly performed by physical appliances in software. The dramatic expansion of bandwidth that makes 5G possibly creates additional avenues of attack. Of course, the vulnerability created by attaching tens of billions of hackable smart devices to the network is referred to as IoT. 5G networks thus create a greatly expanded, multidimensional cyberattack vulnerability. 

Q4. What are the different deployment modes of 5G?             

To help migrate the legacy 4G network to 5G, 3GPP defined two modes: Non-Standalone Architecture (NSA) and Standalone Architecture (SA). NSA 5G leverages existing networking infrastructure, while SA 5G modernizes core network infrastructure to maximize the benefits of 5G evolution and use cases. 

The initial rollouts of 5G networks provide customers with higher data transfer speeds by pairing a 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) with the LTE Evolved Packet Core (EPC). Because the 5G RAN remains reliant on the 4G core network to manage control and signaling information, the 4G RAN continues to operate.  

While standalone 5G doesn't depend on LTE EPC to operate, it pairs 5G radios with a cloud-native 5G core network. The 5G core is designed as a Service Based Architecture (SBA) that virtualizes network functions, providing the full range of 5G features enterprise needs for factory automation, autonomous vehicle operation, and more.