Private Cellular Networks with Small Cells · networks will be local government, including networks to support public safety and smart cities. Other important sectors include manufacturing,

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235.10.01

Private Cellular Networks with Small CellsApril 2020

Small Cell Forum Ltd Tel: +44 (0)845 644 5823 PO Box 23 Fax: +44 (0)845 644 5824 © Small Cell Forum Ltd GL11 5WA Email: [email protected] (formerly Femto Forum Ltd). United Kingdom website: www.smallcellforum.org Registered in the UK no. 6295097

Credits

Contributors Company Keyur Brahmbhatt Extenet Systems Prabhakar Chitrapu AT&T Balaji Raghothaman Commscope Cathy Ducker Corning Hiren Surti Crown Castle Sundaresh Vedapureeswaran

Ericsson

Ravi Sinha Reliance Jio

Small Cell Forum develops the technical and commercial enablers to accelerate small cell adoption and drive wide-scale densification.

Broad roll-out of small cells will make high-grade mobile connectivity accessible and affordable for industries, enterprises and for rural and urban communities. That, in turn, will drive new business opportunities for a widening ecosystem of service providers.

Those service providers are central to our work program. Our operator members establish the requirements that drive the activities and outputs of our technical groups.

We have driven the standardization of key elements of small cell technology including Iuh, FAPI, nFAPI, SON, services APIs, TR-069 evolution and the enhancement of the X2 interface. These specifications enable an open, multivendor platform and lower barriers to densification for all stakeholders.

Today our members are driving solutions that include:• 5G Components, Products, Networks• Dis-aggregated 5G Small Cells• Planning, Management and Automation• 5G regulation & safety• Neutral Hosts & Multi-operator• Private and Public Network coexistence• Edge compute with Small Cell Blueprint• End to end orchestration

The Small Cell Forum Release Program has now established business cases and market drivers for all the main use cases, clarifying market needs and addressing barriers to deployment for residential, enterprise, rural & remote, and urban small cells. It has also established initiatives relating to both public and private (MNO) coordination. The Small Cell Forum Release Program website can be found here: www.scf.io

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Report title: Private Cellular Networks with Small Cells Issue date: April 2020 Version: 10.01

Executive summary

Below is a short summary of the report detail. Rather than reproduce the main SCF recommendations here, they are collected together in section 11.

Private LTE means new opportunities for telco sector. Private LTE networking technology is a significant opportunity for the telco sector, enabling new business models, tailored service offerings and access to new or difficult to reach verticals. It allows users and customers to integrate diverse sensors, machines, people, vehicles and more across a wide range of applications and usage scenarios.

We are clear that PCNs are not a use case waiting for 5G to happen. PCNs and LTE play well together to address user concerns about reliability and service quality as well as about security and compliance. There are plenty of current commercial deployments. Private LTE solutions are already available today that can seamlessly migrate to support private 5G networks when standards and ecosystem support full commercial deployment. Looking ahead, where enterprises have more demanding performance requirements – e.g., availability, reliability, latency, device density etc – 5G will bring a significant uplift in the potential of private networks.

Largest adopters: Our survey shows that by 2025, the largest adopter of private networks will be local government, including networks to support public safety and smart cities. Other important sectors include manufacturing, retail and transport.

Installed base of private small cell networks by vertical sector 2025

There are two main deployment models for private networks. In the self-managed model, the customer purchases, owns and manages the private LTE network. The service-provider-managed model is better suited to organisations wishing to outsource day-day operations, and particularly for use cases requiring national coverage or in regions where access to spectrum is not straight forward.

New business models. Private cellular networks can be manged by mobile network operators (MNOs) or other third-party network providers such as a neutral hosts. Integrators and third-party providers operating in this space might work in partnership


with MNOs – for instance, by leasing their spectrum or by enabling MNOs to provide services based on a shared network. Alternatively, these networks might be run independently of MNOs, harnessing enablers such as shared spectrum or industrial licensed spectrum.

The need for spectrum. Moving away from proprietary solutions, the trend is for private networks to be using standard 4G or 5G technology in shared or leased spectrum. However, there is also a trend for governments to assign licensed spectrum for enterprise use. Spectrum is being made available in Germany, The Netherlands, UK, France and Japan, and some enterprise players may bid for licensed CBRS spectrum in the US auctions in 2020. Making national governments aware of the socio-economic benefits of this approach must be a priority for our industry and enterprise.

A critical role for vEPC. A distributed core – that is, an evolved packet core (vEPC) – is essential in the deployment of private LTE networks. The vEPC can support a RAN-agnostic network – that is DAS, small cells, Wi-Fi and so on – to enable private LTE networks in different architectures.

Small cells help deliver cost effective PCN solutions. While private LTE can be deployed by using either small cells or DAS, small cells have significant economic advantages over traditional DAS systems. For example, CBRS small cells can be deployed at $.30 per square foot, compared to DAS at $3 per square foot.1

Small cells help deliver flexible & sustainable PCN solutions. Unlike DAS, small cells come in an increasingly diverse range of form factors. Each enterprise will have its own deployment environment and each of these will have its own challenges for the best installation and management of connectivity, but there will be a small cell to fit any requirement. Additionally, in the context of 5G, small cells also have a more flexible and better developed technology roadmap.

PCNs and edge. Edge computing will continue to evolve as an important partner technology for private cellular networks, delivering access to virtualized resources. Introducing virtualization into a private cellular network helps deliver a solution for latency-sensitive and high-bandwidth applications.

1 Joe Madden, Principal Analyst, Mobile Experts, https://bit.ly/2SgS8fT


Scope

The present document is a market position paper for private cellular networks. Its lead and editor is Keyur Brahmbhatt, Extenet Systems, with contributions from Prabhakar Chitrapu, AT&T; Cathy Ducker, Corning; Balaji Raghothaman, Commscope; Ravi Sinha, Reliance Jio; Hiren Surti, Crown Castle; and Sundaresh Vedapureeswaran, Ericsson.

The paper’s aim is to introduce SCF’s position on the role of small cells in the context of private networks, to outline market drivers, use cases and recommendations for LTE-based private networks, and to look at the inevitable evolution of cellular communications to 5G and what that will mean for future private networks.

The document builds on earlier work on in-building coverage, shared spectrum small cell architectures, private network deployment case studies and Plugfest activities we have conducted over a number of years.

Our deployment examples demonstrate how small cells and private networks have a natural synergy. LTE-based solutions have already been commercially deployed in a wide-range of settings – from retail and tourism to industrial warehousing and ports, educational campuses, and transportation and logistics.

In addition, Small Cell Forum has conducted a private evolved packet core (EPC) Plugfest whose aim was to explore the quickest and most robust way for thousands of private LTE enterprise networks to connect to a national carrier network operator. More details on this can be found in various Plugfest report summaries [SCF208], [SCF209].

Readers may also find [SCF189] Shared spectrum: CBRS small cell network architecture & operations of interest.

This paper aims to:

1) help enterprise, industry and government understand the potential benefits of private networks to support their digital connectivity needs;

2) help private network service providers (including MNOs, neutral hosts, system integrators) better understand the benefits which are most valued by the different types of customer.

Definition of commonly used terms

Customer – enterprise or government organisation using a private network

Subscriber – person of thing being connected by the private network. Often but not necessarily a part of the private network customer’s organisation

Service provider – third party organisation managing the private network, could be an MNO, neutral host, system integrator or other IT provider.

Mobile Network Operator (MNO) – mobile spectrum licensee and deployer of national public mobile networks

http://scf.io/doc/208

http://scf.io/doc/209


Contents

1. Introduction ................................................................. 1 2. Private cellular networks overview .............................. 3 2.1 Types and Characteristics ................................................. 3 2.2 Business value ................................................................ 4 2.3 Key players .................................................................... 4 2.4 Use cases ....................................................................... 4 3. Market analysis ............................................................ 6 3.1 Service providers............................................................. 6 3.2 Spectrum ....................................................................... 8 3.3 Market segmentation ....................................................... 9 4. Deployment examples and opportunities.................... 10 4.1 Local government – smart cities ...................................... 10 4.2 Transportation – sector overview ..................................... 12 4.3 Ports ............................................................................ 14 4.4 Remote industrial – oil, gas and mines ............................. 15 4.5 Factory and online retail automation ................................ 18 4.6 Stadiums ...................................................................... 19 4.7 Malls and campus site management, parking and visitor

information ................................................................... 20 4.8 Healthcare .................................................................... 21 4.9 Rural service: Mobile broadband ...................................... 23 5. Role of small cells in private cellular networks ........... 28 6. Deployment models .................................................... 31 6.1 Self-managed ............................................................... 31 6.2 Service-Provider Managed .............................................. 31 7. Standards ................................................................... 33 7.1 3GPP ........................................................................... 33 7.2 MulteFire Alliance .......................................................... 34 7.3 CBRS Alliance ............................................................... 34 8. Architecture options ................................................... 36 8.1 Private LTE network architecture ..................................... 36 8.2 Private LTE with edge computing ..................................... 38 9. Private networks in the 5G era ................................... 40 10. 5G orchestration for non-public networks .................. 42 10.2 Orchestration for PNO + MNO integrated private network ... 42 10.3 Orchestration for isolated non-public network ................... 43


11. SCF recommendations ................................................ 44 11.1 Common recommendations ............................................ 44 11.2 Recommendations for completely isolated PCNs ................ 44 11.3 Recommendations for PCNs with roaming ......................... 44 11.4 Recommendations for PCN with MNO integration ............... 45 References ............................................................................ 46


Table of figures

Figure 1–1 Key players in a private network ................................................... 1 Figure 3–1 Deployments of small cells in private networks by service provider

type .......................................................................................... 8 Figure 3–2 New deployments and upgrades of enterprise small cells, including

those deployed and operated by non-MNOs, and those in shared or unlicensed spectrum. .................................................................. 9

Figure 3–3 Installed base of private small cell networks by vertical sector 2025.. 9 Figure 4–1 Smart city use cases ................................................................. 11 Figure 4–2 Rotterdam harbour ................................................................... 14 Figure 4–3 Remote industrial deployment .................................................... 16 Figure 4–4 Mining ..................................................................................... 17 Figure 4–5 Roaming the warehouse on a grid above millions of grocery items,

Ocado’s robots can assemble a typical 50-item order in five minutes .............................................................................................. 18

Figure 4–6 ISM Raceway, Phoenix, connectivity delivered with CBRS private LTE network ................................................................................... 20

Figure 4–7 American Dream retail and entertainment complex, New Jersey – CBRS private LTE network delivering connectivity for facility operations and visitor services.................................................... 21

Figure 4–8 Bravis hospital site in the Netherlands was looking for a secure alternative to Wi-Fi ................................................................... 22

Figure 4–9 Healthcare deployment architecture ............................................ 23 Figure 4–10 Fixed wireless Internet .............................................................. 24 Figure 4–11 Fixed wireless access with vEPC .................................................. 26 Figure 4–12 Sweet spot for broadband wireless access .................................... 27 Figure 5–1 Deployments of small cells in private networks by region ............... 29 Figure 5–2 New deployments of non-residential small cells by environment 2015-

25 ........................................................................................... 30 Figure 5–3 Deployment and management of non- residential small cells by

service provider type 2016 to 2023 (% of installed base, global) .... 30 Figure 6–1 Example of enterprise private LTE network .................................. 31 Figure 6–2 An example of a managed private LTE deployment ....................... 32 Figure 7–1 Three tiered spectrum access system (CBRS-A) ............................ 34 Figure 8–1 Completely private and hybrid private-plus-MMO LTE architectures . 36 Figure 8–2 Private network deployed as described in 3GPP TS 23.401 ............. 37 Figure 8–3 Evolving technologies in a private cellular network ........................ 38 Figure 8–4 Private cellular network hierarchy ............................................... 39 Figure 9–1 Deployment of small cells in private networks – 4G or 5G .............. 41 Figure 10–1 Orchestration for integrated private 5G network ........................... 43 Figure 10–2 Orchestration for isolated private 5G network ................................ 43

Report title: Private Cellular Networks with Small Cells Issue date: April 2020 Version: 10.01 1

1. Introduction

Public cellular networks are designed to serve the broad business needs of mobile network operators (MNOs). Private networks are custom designed for the specific needs of an organisational entity such as an enterprise or a local government. Private cellular networks can provide higher quality mobile connectivity than Wi-Fi, and have a more extensive ecosystem of technology suppliers, system integrators and service providers than proprietary solutions. Cellular devices also have the possibility to roam seamlessly onto global mobile networks.

With LTE technology, new types of spectrum and the emergence of a range of service providers, commercial conditions are ripe for enterprises and government to leverage private networks for their business-critical and mission-critical connectivity needs. In this paper we focus on understanding these early adopters and how they are using private networks to better achieve their organisation goals.

The aims of this paper are twofold:

1. to help enterprise, industry and government understand the potential benefits of private networks to support their digital connectivity needs

2. to help private network service providers better understand the benefits which are most valued by the different types of customer

A further ambition is to identify barriers to the growth of private networks and recommend industry action to address them.

The paper is organised around the different players and technology components involved in the private network as illustrated in Figure 1–1.

Figure 1–1 Key players in a private network

The key difference between private and public is that the ‘customer’ is an organisational entity rather than a mobile subscriber. In a private network, the customer commissions a private network in support of their organisational goals. This will typically involve providing mobile connectivity to ‘subscribers’. Subscribes may be ‘things’ such as sensor and control networks, or ‘people’ such as an organisation’s


staff or guests and visitors to a venue. Section 3 provides a market segmentation for different types of customer, and section 4 provides case studies and deployment examples which highlight how these organisations are benefitting.

The private network may be self-managed by the customer, or service-provider-managed, as described later in the deployment models section 6. The service provider may be a mobile network operator (MNO), a neutral host, or industry specific technology provider. Spectrum availability has been a decisive factor in the in need to use service provider that can bring this to the table. CBRS, ‘local 5G’, and other regional spectrum initiatives are changing this. The forecasted market share between such providers can be found in the market analysis section 3.

Section 5 considers the role of small cells in private networks and the benefits for private network providers of tapping into this larger ecosystem.

Section 6 describes the two main deployment models: self-managed and service-provider-managed, and sections 7 and 8 then describe related standards and architecture options, including the use of edge compute. Sections 9 and 10 then consider the timing of the evolution from private LTE to 5GNR, and futureproofing factors.

Section 11 summarises with SCF’s recommendations to help accelerate the growth of this promising application for small cells.


2. Private cellular networks overview

A private cellular network is a cellular network that only appropriately configured private users can access. Private users, in this case, can be humans and/or things (i.e., in the context of the Internet of Things (IoT)).

By contrast, a public cellular network is one that public users (subscribers of one or more mobile network operators (MNOs)) can access.

A variation on these themes is a hybrid cellular network. This consists of both types of model: a private cellular network that only appropriately configured private users can access and a public cellular network that public users can access.

In a private network, the commissioning entity decides on which attributes – performance and coverage, for example – are most important. These tend to be business-based decisions.

In a public network regulators set the minimum standards. These normally reflect license obligations such as coverage, 911 services or number portability.

2.1 Types and Characteristics

There are three basic types of private network (known as ‘non-public networks’ in 3GPP terminology):

Types of private cellular network:

• Completely isolated • Integrated with MNO network • Roaming with MNO network

And each of these models can comprise the following characteristics:

Characteristics of private cellular network:

• Spectrum

• MNO licensed • Privately licensed • Shared • Unlicensed

• Radio access network (RAN)

• Dedicated and customer operated • Dedicated and service provider/third party operated • Shared and MNO operated (with or without network slicing)

• Core

• Dedicated and customer operated • Dedicated and service provider/third party operated • Shared and MNO operated (with or without network slicing)

• Deployment


• Standalone private • Hybrid private + MNO dual

• Management/operations

• Enterprise • Managed services provider (MSP) • MNO

In addition to these types and characteristics, at present private networks are likely to be standards-based LTE networks designed to serve specific enterprise, government and educational purposes. They will offer pervasive connectivity and awareness. They will also support or enable new and efficient modes of customer interaction and service delivery.

2.2 Business value

Private networks that are designed and created for specific enterprises offer opportunities to optimize performance and service delivery in ways that are impractical or impossible through generic cellular, wireline or Wi-Fi service provision. Headline business value to firms includes:

• The provision of bespoke services – i.e., services unique to the customer and tailored to its business and operational requirements

• Security and privacy – by keeping private user traffic local to the customer’s private networks

• Improved efficiencies or reduced cost of doing business • Reduced latency • Reduced backhaul cost

2.3 Key players

Private cellular networks can be operated by mobile network operators (MNOs) or third-party network providers (such as a neutral host) MNOs can deploy dedicated private cellular networks to address the increasing need for data confidentiality and tighter integration with enterprises. At the same time this permits continued links to the MNO’s national network.

A neutral host can deploy private cellular networks using local breakout (LBO) to allow them to interoperate with public cellular networks that use public cloud. This will allow them to save money on local bandwidth and may improve performance.

Clearly this is a new model that can include some or all of the following players:

• A customer – an enterprise or government organisation • Subscribers (people and things) • A private network service provider – potentially an MNO or neutral host • An MNO to enable subscriber roaming

2.4 Use cases

Wireless networking in the enterprise domain offers a large, so far untapped growth opportunity for smart connected systems. It will support a transition from disparate disconnected networks to smart systems that support new streams of customer-led value creation.


Today, wireless networks in the enterprise industrial and business-critical domains – such as manufacturing, supply chain, transportation systems and energy – are mostly discrete. This is because many are proprietary, purpose-built networks that do not interoperate with each other. This in turn will make it difficult to scale and effectively use such networks for 5G low-latency, high-bandwidth applications when they arrive.

Private LTE networking technology allows users and customers to integrate diverse sensors, machines, people, vehicles and more across a wide range of applications and usage scenarios. It also provides a single, scalable wireless networking solution that leverages LTE’s technology and ecosystem benefits to address user concerns about reliability and service quality as well as about security and compliance.

There are many organizations that have wireless networking use cases that cannot be supported by public networks. These can be split into three broad categories:

• Coverage – This could involve an enterprise deploying its own network to guarantee coverage at a facility or location, usually in cases where public networks do not exist or are not robust. This could apply in remote areas like mines, or agricultural areas. However, it is also relevant to indoor and campus locations such as factories, warehouses or power plants.

• Capacity – If there are no other network users, enterprises can make full and exclusive use of available capacity. They can configure uplink and downlink, set usage policy and engineer a RAN according to their specific capacity demands. For example, they might want to support high definition (HD) video streaming and analysis for security application. Exclusive usage would allow this.

• Control – Which users can connect, how resources are utilized and how traffic is prioritized become less of a problem when an enterprise has sole use of the wireless network. LTE radio can, for example, be customized to optimize reliability and latency in challenging physical environments such as a warehouse or an oil or gas facility. Enterprises can also control their security to ensure that sensitive information does not leave a premises.


3. Market analysis

Allocation of wireless technologies used to be fairly straightforward. Cellular technologies used licensed spectrum, allocated exclusively and for long periods to a small number of mobile network operators (MNOs). Some industries had their own spectrum in which they ran private networks, usually based on specialized technology. A separate set of technologies ran in unlicensed spectrum such as the GHz and 868/900 MHz bands. These were dominated by networks based on IEEE standards such as 802.11/Wi-Fi. And that, by and large, was that.

Not anymore. Wireless data usage has risen steadily over the past couple of decades. Wireless data has also reached true broadband speeds. In turn the need for spectrum has become far greater and the barriers between licensed and unlicensed, and between public and private, have been lowered.

Which brings us to 5G. One of the most interesting aspects of 5G is the way it will drive new approaches to deployment and inspire a rebirth of private networking. 5G will enable many new services and experiences for enterprises and industrial organizations, notably those that require very low latency, high availability or strong security.

But in many markets MNOs find it difficult to make a strong business case to the industrial or IoT sectors. They therefore usually prefer to focus on their familiar consumer broadband user bases. At the same time, many enterprises would prefer their cellular networks to be deployed and run by well-established partners that understand their business and their other technologies. This preference usually reflects the way such businesses have deployed wireline and wireless LANs and WANs.

In theory then, the door is open for enterprise-focused service providers to offer mobile services optimized specifically for certain vertical markets. This might be in partnership with the MNOs – for instance, by leasing their spectrum or by enabling MNOs to provide services based on a shared network. Alternatively, these networks might be run independently of MNOs, harnessing enablers such as shared spectrum or industrial licensed spectrum. Early examples of this could come from Germany, where car giants BMW, Daimler/Mercedes and Volkswagen have lobbied the regulator successfully for some mid-band 5G spectrum to be earmarked for industrial purposes.

3.1 Service providers

The SCF view is that the rise of specialized enterprise and industrial mobile services will, in turn, drive rising investment in neutral host networks and private cellular. This will be further accelerated by the growing availability of shared spectrum and of localized, virtualized RAN and core platforms that will help to reduce the cost of deployment.

As we have previously mentioned, the development of private, local networks will often be driven by the need for stringent privacy and security restrictions as well as by the opportunity they provide to configure the network for low-latency and real-time operations. The fact that all of this would be enabled without the burden of interworking with public networks is another important driver. Examples of how these drivers might be applied include robotic motion control in factories, which requires millisecond updating, or time sensitive networking (TSN), where flexible slots are used for efficient synchronization of machines, to name only two of many.


Such networks could have their own dedicated core, on-premise or in the cloud, and their own integrated edge computing resource. They could also interwork with Wi-Fi and the company LAN. There might be a need for an MVNO or roaming agreement, but these would usually be to support users when they roamed beyond the limits of the local RAN. The network could then be optimized completely for the specific performance, security and latency requirements of the enterprise, and secured, controlled and monetized by the organization itself – or by the neutral host.

So, what sort of players will be involved in this alternative approach to deployment of networks – in which, it is worth remembering, small cells will play a major role?

They might include:

• Enterprise IT departments, especially in very large organizations such as utilities and transport operators, which might also have spectrum of their own.

• Enterprise integrators with existing relationships involving LAN, WLAN or IT. • ‘Heavy MVNOs’ that have an MVNO agreement with the MNO for spectrum

and wide area connectivity, but that deploy their own small cells and often a local core for the enterprise.

• Cloud service providers such as AWS, which could host the local virtualized RAN controller and core in their clouds, and could extend these resources locally via small cells and edge nodes.

• Cloud-based network-as-a-service companies providing management and security for a ‘network-in-a-box’ on the local site.

• Cable operators, which have the added advantage of owning fibre lines useful for small cell backhaul, and which have extensive enterprise Wi-Fi management activities.

• Specialist neutral hosts providing shared networks for enterprises, cities or railways, say. These might be start-ups, cable or fiber operators. Some tower operators – Crown Castle, for example – are already considering an extension of their model in this direction.

• Vendors offering turnkey enterprise solutions. For example, Zinwave’s DAS with integrated CBRS SAS from Federated Wireless (see also section 7.3).


Figure 3–1 Deployments of small cells in private networks by service provider type

With this plethora of different service providers seeking a stake in the enterprise cellular market, there will be considerable competition and fallout. This, however, will drive innovation and new business models. It will also result in a far more fragmented picture of ownership of cellular small cells by mid-decade, as Figure 1–1 shows. This graph summarizes our forecast for the changing pattern of deployment and management of small cells.

3.2 Spectrum

The main change is the growth of neutral host and shared network models at the expense of single-MNO deployments. This is a logical trend. After all, the denser enterprise networks become, the less practical and affordable it becomes for each MNO to build its own.

In 2018 most private and enterprise service providers – in public utilities or public safety networks, for example – were still using proprietary technology and spectrum. In the 2020s, they will increasingly be using standard 4G or 5G technology in shared or leased spectrum. However, there is also a trend for governments to allocate some licensed spectrum for enterprise use. For example, Germany, The Netherlands, and some enterprise players may bid for licensed CBRS spectrum in the US auctions in 2020 (see also section 7.3).

This changing pattern of network operations will take place against a backdrop of growth in enterprise small cells. Figure 3–1 indicates our forecast for the growth of this category to 2025. Enterprise and private network requirements, as well as shared spectrum, are key drivers.


Figure 3–2 New deployments and upgrades of enterprise small cells, including those deployed and operated by non-MNOs, and those in shared or unlicensed spectrum.

3.3 Market segmentation

Figure 3–3 shows the vertical industries which, based on our surveys of enterprises and their suppliers, will be the biggest adopters of private small cell networks. Deployments are led by local government, including networks to support public safety and smart cities. These are followed by manufacturing, retail and transport.

Figure 3–3 Installed base of private small cell networks by vertical sector 2025


4. Deployment examples and opportunities

Across various market verticals, small cell-based private networks offer tremendous opportunities to enable enterprise owners to set up scalable, purpose-built networks.

Of course, needs and requirements will vary for each market segment. Network design and architecture should adapt to those requirements. Service providers need to drive optimal small-cell-based network designs that meet the unique requirements of each customer use case.

The availability of lightly licensed CBRS spectrum (see also section 7.3) has opened up significant opportunities to deploy small cells-based private LTE networks in the enterprise. Initial commercial deployments involving CBRS were approved by the FCC in Q3, 2019. This development means that there are now many opportunities for new entrant service providers to launch private LTE networks.

In this section we describe both the opportunities and the challenges involved in deploying private LTE services in different market segments. We also look at ways to address some of the challenges.

4.1 Local government – smart cities

This is a key driver for private and local authority-run networks, as the list of potential benefits below indicates.

4.1.1 Market drivers

• Numerous factors putting a strain on cities, such as:

• The short-term need to meet budget demands • The medium-term demands of changing leadership • The long-term effects of changes to population and infrastructure

• Key issues that are important to cities, most notably providing high quality of life

• Increasing the tax base • Ensuring low environmental impact • Retaining fiscal responsibility

4.1.2 Business opportunity

• There is an expected smart city market value of $1.56 trillion by 2025


Figure 4–1 Smart city use cases

4.1.3 Smart city benefits

• Heightened processes and efficiencies • Cost savings • Development of methods to protect the environment • Communities that better serve individuals and organizations

4.1.4 Opportunities

• Private LTE(CBRS)/5G-based solutions for smart cities • 3GPP standards-based solutions as part of an evolution path to 5G • Access to spectrum (CBRS) • Better performance (LTE) • Multiple use cases • Reduced CAPEX/OPEX with shared infrastructure via managed services

provider (MSP)

4.1.5 Key players

• Municipality, city, township • Spectrum owners: these could include utility companies, wireless broadband

service providers, individuals and, potentially, many more. • Service providers: these could include MNOs, neutral hosts, municipalities,

and a number of others • OEMs. Too many to list but Ericsson, Nokia, Cradle Point and device

manufacturers would be examples


4.1.6 Funding sources

• Private investments • Financing through commercial stakeholders, service providers, private

investors, and venture capitalists (for example, Amsterdam Smart City Platform)

• Public private partnerships (PPPs) • Funding and operation through a partnership of government and one or more

private sector companies, such as the Cisco – Copenhagen partnership • Special Development Funds • Federal funding for rural broadband development

4.1.7 Business models

• Build, own and operate • Build, operate and transfer • Open business model • Build, operate and manage

4.1.8 Challenges/barriers

• Limited IT resources and capabilities • Budget limitations • Explosion of endpoints to manage • City-wide wireless infrastructure • More agility to embrace new tech • Shifting security paradigm

4.2 Transportation – sector overview

Market drivers

In our daily life, we are on the move and goods are on the move, which means that transportation is at the heart of personal and commercial life. Here are some key points that explain the socio-economic impact of this sector and the role connectivity plays in its efficacy and operations.

• Travel: The UN World Tourism Organization estimates that, internationally, there were just 25 million tourist arrivals in 1950. In 2018, 68 years later, this number has increased to 1.4 billion international arrivals per year. This is a 56-fold increase.

• Public transport2: in 2015, 243 billion public transport journeys were made in 39 countries around the world. This figure represents an 18% increase compared to 2000. In 2015, the urban population of these countries (roughly 2 billion, equal to half of the world's urban population) made, on average, 121 journeys per capita.

• Port container traffic3: In 2017, 753 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers were handled in ports worldwide. World container port throughput grew by 6 per cent between 2016 and 2017. Highest growth recorded over the last five years.

2 https://www.uitp.org/sites/default/files/cck-focus-papers-files/UITP_Statistic Brief national PT stats.pdf

3 https://stats.unctad.org/handbook/MaritimeTransport/Indicators.html


• Logistics, such as transport and storage, account for 10–15% of the cost of a finished product for European companies.4

• Ecall – the capacity to dial an emergency number, was made mandatory in all new cars sold within the EU from April 2018.5

• Smart mobility6: the most common problem for commuters is the large traffic congestion during their morning commute. The U.S. loses $120 billion dollars every year due to these congestions. 7

These data points highlight the importance of connectivity for people, vehicles and goods. But how do small cells and private LTE help address these needs?

Benefits

Private LTE networks help increase network density and support many requirements for the transportation sector:

• Integrated systems, with indoor and outdoor cellular connectivity • Delivery of critical services • Security requirements for enterprise services • Critical communications

An important benefit of private LTE for the transportation sector is the security of data. Because it is mission critical, transportation firms need to be able to take responsibility for the maintenance of their networks. For example, there needs to be an option for micro targeted redundancy in case one system goes down. Another key benefit relates to cost: for this sector, the value of the data cannot be counted at a per bit/monthly charge, which would make the service prohibitive.

Challenges

Like for all industry sectors, a major challenge of private networks for enterprises relates to the question of ownership: who owns the network deployed? When the network is to be used in a given enterprise and the enterprise deploys the network then the question is resolved.

• Access to appropriate skill sets – For example, general underlying technical support and management of SIMs. Clearly partnership will be required for the management of most PCNs.

• Cost: more than one application is needed to justify the deployment of a private network. Example: a push to see/hear/talk service and an automated guided vehicle service. Push to talk – LMR where integration devices are integrated within a crane.

Opportunities

• Private LTE in the transport sector represents an excellent opportunity to drive enterprise use of small cells in a targeted and cost-effective way.

4 https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/research-topic/transport-sector-economic-analysis

5 https://ec.europa.eu/transport/themes/its/road/action_plan/ecall_en

6 https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/resources/smart-cities-and-mobility/

7 https://www.dmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/INRIX_2017_Traffic_Scorecard_Final_2.pdf


• PCN’s is a new service opportunity for neutral hosts and systems integrators. • PCNs are how enterprises can control data access, security and usage without

being subject to MNO pricing plans. • This is a sector where requirements will need to be tailored and where

operators will be least interested in deploying networks – e.g., train yard, ports etc.

4.3 Ports

4.3.1 Requirements

• 24/7/365 coverage solutions port teams can easily manage, scale, and monitor

• Automation is now the key use case, alongside mission-critical push-to-talk (MCPTT), man-down, and lone-worker applications to enhance health and safety

• Open platforms that integrate with the latest digital applications • 30 m/s guaranteed latency • Easy-to-use enterprise dashboard that provides full monitoring and control.

4.3.2 Commercial deployment

Over 12 million containers are shipped each year across Druid Software’s private cellular IoT solution in Rotterdam’s container terminals. The company is engaged with Dutch integrator Koning & Hartman on private LTE projects in a number of harbours, including Rotterdam. The two firms have recently extended their collaboration across enterprise telecoms, industrial IoT and healthcare solutions. Their work on private networks has typically involved 4G small cells from Airspan.

Figure 4–2 Rotterdam harbour

Druid’s Raemis platform, a virtual ePC for management of private networks, takes cellular radios from any vendor and unifies them into an LTE network that can be


managed easily by IT technicians – in much the same way as they manage their existing IT systems.

4.3.3 Key players

• port authority • terminal operator • mobile operator • systems integrator • solution provider(s)

4.3.4 Market demand

With automation the key requirement for ports of all sizes, a survey by Navis on port strategy found that8:

• Nearly 75% of port operators believed that automation is critical in order to maintain competitiveness in the next three to five years.

• 65% of port operators view automation as a lever for operation security. • Respondents were optimistic about the overall return on investment. About

one third thought that automation could increase productivity by 50%, while about one in five said automation could reduce operating costs by more than 50%.

4.4 Remote industrial – oil, gas and mines

4.4.1 Requirements

• Reliable voice and data in remote locations • Reducing travel time within and between sites • Robust wireless video surveillance to enhance site security • Access to secure operational systems, facilities and production information –

e.g., real-time access to drilling machine data • Secure, machine remote control operations to reduce costs and increase the

safety of workers by keeping them away of hazardous environments • Man-down and lone-worker applications to enhance health and safety • Rapid deployment

4.4.2 Commercial deployment 1

Beach Energy is Australia’s largest onshore oil producer. The Adelaide-based energy exploration and production company’s core operations are spread across 56,000 square kilometers in the Cooper and Eromanga Basins in the northeast of South Australia and southwest Queensland.

In the past the company relied on ultra-high frequency (UHF) radios and repeaters to communicate at its remote sites. It needed to upgrade the UHF radio network to be able to have more voice channels, and also more private conversations.

The Beach Energy mining operation has one main 60-meter base station tower that also co-locates the core network equipment, mostly to cover the main areas of travel

8 https://bit.ly/2uvGJzY


within the mining footprint, and then a network of smaller cells that were added to supplement the coverage.

Figure 4–3 Remote industrial deployment

Beach Energy has rolled out a private 4G/LTE network in a bid to improve communications across its Cooper Basin gas fields. The LTE network is privately owned and operated by Beach Energy, which holds 2100-MHz-spectrum licenses in the area.

This LTE network allows the firm to use data over the network with coverage distances of 1–30 km, and is cost-effective to provide broader coverage to the entire mine site. An average open-pit mine of 20 x 10 km normally requires 5 to 10 access points for complete mine coverage (compared to 200+ Wi-Fi access points to cover the same footprint). LTE also ensures security, critical because the convergence of information and operational technologies brings greater susceptibility to cyber-attacks.

Beach chose Melbourne-based Challenge Networks to build the network, which employs Nokia’s Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Stations, complemented by its Flexi Zone small cells solutions and Cisco’s mobile broadband solution based on its Ultra Packet Core (UPC) software.

4.4.3 Commercial deployment 2

Ericsson partnered with specialist integrator Ambra to deliver the world’s deepest underground LTE network for the Agnico Eagle mining complex, LaRonde, in Abitibi, Quebec, Canada.


Figure 4–4 Mining

Located 3.5 kilometers below the surface, the private network provides data and voice services across the LaRonde mine site and enables several Internet of Things (IoT) use cases to improve safety and mining operations. Following the initial deployment, the partnership has enhanced the installation using Ericsson solutions to deliver automation of ventilation systems, real-time personnel and vehicle tracking and remote controlling of machinery like scoop diggers, hauler trucks, drillers, and other mining equipment.

The solution is software upgradable to provide massive IoT capabilities for sensor-based applications, and supports 5G-ready radio capability.

4.4.4 Market opportunity

As with ports, secure and reliable voice and data services are an early driver for private LTE networks but, as with ports, the driver for future investment is all about automation:

• The Oil & Gas automation was valued at USD 29.65 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach USD 51.94 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 9.8% over the forecast period 2020 - 2025.

• According to Forbes, the dependence of the oil and gas industry on automation has increased in the last decade, and this is expected further to double by 2020.9

• The global mining automation market was estimated to value at nearly US$ 2.9 Bn in 2019, and is expected to register a CAGR over 5.3%. The first five-year cumulative revenue (2019-2023) is projected to be more than US$ 16 Bn. 10

9 Mordor Intelligence, https://bit.ly/39wixw5

10 MarketWatch, https://on.mktw.net/31PngpR


4.5 Factory and online retail automation

4.5.1 Challenges

• Robust connectivity in a challenging environment • Mobility • Security • Connection density • Requirement for scalability • Low latency

Commercial deployment

Online only UK retailer Ocado is famous for developing what it claims to be the world’s first bespoke private LTE network in unlicensed spectrum for factory automation.

Figure 4–5 Roaming the warehouse on a grid above millions of grocery items, Ocado’s robots can assemble a typical 50-item order in five minutes

Ocado ships more than 260,000 orders a week and recognized the potential to cut costs, improve efficiency and transform its operations through automation. Working with Cambridge Consultants it designed a customized fulfilment solution in the form of a modular robotic grid.

Clearly the robot pickers needed to be connected via a robust and secure network and the scale of the challenge was significant: reliable and predictable communication, ten times a second, with every one of thousands of robots across a huge warehouse. The solution was a private LTE network in the unlicensed 5 GHz band. It uses a redesigned MAC and resource scheduler on top of the LTE physical layer.

The system enables the warehouse team to receive status messages every time a bot traverses into a new grid cell, which is critical to support real-time control.


Market opportunity

Once again, it’s all about the role LTE private networks have to play in automation of factories and warehouses.

• Private LTE/5G networks provide the reliability, speeds, security and flexibility factory automation is starting to demand.

• Private LTE can support the Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) that keep track of all manufacturing information in real time, receiving up-to-the-minute data from robots, machine monitors and employees.

• According to analysts Autumn, MES is the fastest growing technology in factory automation, estimated to grow at a CAGR of about 11% 2019-24.

• The global market for industrial control and factory automation is estimated to reach $255.4 billion by 2024, growing at a CAGR of 9.4% 2019-24.11

4.6 Stadiums

Requirements

Stadiums are very challenging environments that experience huge demand peaks for relatively short periods of time. They also require separate consideration of the requirements of visitors, staff and emergency services.

Stadium visitors want to:

• Make voice calls and send or receive all types of data, without limitation, for the duration of the event

• access online navigation systems for the venue • use social media and upload video

Meanwhile:

• stewards, repair staff and road crew want to use phones, tablets or two-way radio to ensure the smooth running of both the venue and the event; and

• emergency services want to communicate with each other to guarantee safety, whatever the status of the network used by visitors.

Commercial deployments

In November 2018, American Tower partnered with Ruckus to deliver a CBRS private LTE network deployment at International Speedway Corporation's (ISC) newly-renovated ISM Raceway in Phoenix. The solution delivers expanded connectivity to motorsports enthusiasts in the grandstands, camping grounds and Midway.

The availability of the CBRS option provides the opportunity to leverage 3.5 GHz spectrum to enable organizations to establish their own private, bespoke networks. This makes it ideal for in-building and public space applications where cellular signals are weak, or spectrum is limited, but data demand is not.

11 Autumn Research, 2019, https://bit.ly/3bBnfKE


Figure 4–6 ISM Raceway, Phoenix, connectivity delivered with CBRS private LTE network

Craig Neeb, Executive Vice President, Chief Innovation and Development Officer, ISC, has said: ‘We've made significant upgrades and enhancements to modernize ISM Raceway, and we believe the comprehensive Wi-Fi broadband and CBRS LTE network solution deployed by American Tower and ARRIS will provide the constant connectivity our fans need to enjoy and share their experience. It will also improve race-day communications for our partners and employees.’

At the ISM Raceway, American Tower deployed the Federated Wireless Spectrum Controller and the Ruckus Q710 and Q910 LTE APs. It also installed the Ruckus T310 series and T610 series outdoor 802.11ac APs.

4.7 Malls and campus site management, parking and visitor information

• Market drivers

• Enhanced visitor experience • Traffic management • Site security • Parking and wayfinding information systems • Secure enterprise communications • Operational cost savings

• Challenges

• Business models. Should this be enterprise or venue funded? • Access to spectrum. Licensed or unlicensed? • Access to infrastructure. How and where are fiber, power, etc • Regulation

• Opportunities


• Enterprise-funded neutral host models • CBRS-based private LTE general authorized access/priority access

(GAA/PAL) license • Neutral host provider of managed access (building, MMR, IDF, access

nodes)


American Dream is a new retail and entertainment complex in New Jersey that projects 40 million visitors annually and includes over 450 shops, services and amenities.

JMA Wireless partnered with specialist integrator Advanced Network Services to deploy a private LTE network (Druid’s Raemis platform) using 3.5 GHz Citizen Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum for facility operations and guest services. Initially, the network will service outdoor spaces for comprehensive traffic management, parking and wayfinding information systems. The set-up will evolve for fixed and mobile devices including video cameras, digital displays, vehicle connectivity, internal use communications, and IoT for facility operations.

Figure 4–7 American Dream retail and entertainment complex, New Jersey – CBRS private LTE network delivering connectivity for facility operations and visitor services

CBRS spectrum surrounding the complex is enabled with JMA’s XRAN, a virtualized, software baseband running on standard Intel Xeon servers. The solution utilizes JMA’s Cell Hub CBRS radios working in conjunction with XRAN software.

4.8 Healthcare

Requirements

• Secure communications for nurses and doctors • Robust connectivity for patients regardless of device – e.g., monitoring

equipment and panic buttons • Mobility • High levels of QoS • Operational cost savings



Healthcare requires highly secure, resilient mobile data for the large-scale critical communications services accessed daily. Koning and Hartman, Druid’s specialist ICT partners, introduced the Druid LTE technology to the Bravis hospital site in the Netherlands in 2018.

Figure 4–8 Bravis hospital site in the Netherlands was looking for a secure alternative to Wi-Fi

The brief was to provide an alternative to Wi-Fi, which the hospital had found to have serious drawbacks when it comes to carrying business critical mobile communications.

The hospital’s new private LTE network means that several hundred doctors and nurses are provided with a resilient, quality of service private LTE network across the hospital campus for mobile voice, messaging and data services.

High quality mobility has always been a challenge for Wi-Fi to deliver on and interference can also be a serious issue with virtually any smart phone device available today being capable of acting as a Wi-Fi access point and interfering with the enterprise’s business critical communications. Wi-Fi also struggles in outdoor enterprise environments particularly over wide areas of coverage.

Security is also a big issue that private LTE addresses. Doctors and nurses need instant access to patient records and want this information directly accessible on the latest mobile devices. This type of patient information cannot be allowed onto the public mobile operator’s networks, or public clouds. A private LTE solution ensures the highest levels of mobile encryption and that all information accessed is only ever on the hospitals own network.


Figure 4–9 Healthcare deployment architecture

Meanwhile, as a glimpse of future private networks in the healthcare sector, Total Telecom has reported a private 5G network trial conducted by China Mobile and Huawei at the West China Second University Hospital in Sichuan Province.

The report says ‘the hospital features a 5G ‘smart’ brain: full, round the clock camera surveillance identifies and tracks the location and actions of both staff and customers, delivering smart asset management to optimise wait times and care delivery.

Similarly, this network can help radically accelerate data transfer from ambulances to hospitals, resulting in accurate care being delivered directly upon arrival.’12

4.9 Rural service: Mobile broadband

When broadband grew rapidly in the early DSL and cable era, it was fueled by insatiable demand and a sensible cost model, delivering a return on investment (ROI) for ISPs of 12-18 months. Fiber failed to match that opportunity, as demand for gigabit service was low and the cost model did not scale; it tended to be nearly five years before ROI was realized. Fixed wireless creates the healthy conditions to once again stimulate broad growth. The opportunity is huge—high-density cities, poorly connected suburbs, and streaming video are driving incredible demand. In addition, rural communities are impatient for fiber-fast internet after struggling with

12 Total Telecom, January 2020, https://bit.ly/2UNMt2L


intermittent, low-speed access for years. With the introduction of the fixed wireless solution, ROI can be delivered in 6-12 months in most global markets.

Figure 4–10 Fixed wireless Internet

4.9.1 Market drivers

• The economics of wireless technology enable network deployments at a fraction of the cost of wireline.

• The economics of unlicensed spectrum and trends in spectrum regulation are favorable to fixed wireless.

• Consumer demand for broadband connectivity and associated applications, especially video, is soaring.

• Global standards-based technologies, such as LTE and 5G, and a growing equipment ecosystem are being leveraged for fixed wireless applications.

• Industry consolidation, a healthy funding environment, and greater support from government are driving investment.

• New entrants and hybrid networks are contributing to a more viable business model.

New markets and categories such as home automation, security, and the Internet of Things (IoT) present further opportunities for fixed wireless.

The fixed wireless sector is growing as LTE and unlicensed wireless technology evolves and 5G comes online. There are a number of drivers. These platforms are approaching (and maybe even exceeding in some cases) equivalency with wired networks. They can be deployed at lower costs. Mobile experts say that fixed wireless will generate almost $20 billion in equipment revenue from base station access points and customer premises equipment during the next six years. MNOs are increasingly positioning their fixed wireless offering as ‘wireless fiber’. Such offerings use unlicensed spectrum and offer speeds of up to 100 Mbps at a preferred range of five miles.

4.9.2 Challenges

Right of way

• The permitting process is too slow and restrictive for telecommunications infrastructure deployment

• Power • Fiber • Equipment


Access to funds

• Small operators lack the financial resources to build the infrastructure. • Shifting government regulations tend to require expensive equipment changes

Operator agreements

• Data and voice roaming • VoLTE roaming

Regulatory compliance

• E911 (a service that automatically displays the telephone number and physical location of the 911 caller on the emergency operator's screen)

• CALEA (the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act requiring that telecommunications carriers and manufacturers of telecommunications equipment modify and design their equipment, facilities, and services to ensure that they have built-in capabilities for targeted surveillance)

• CMAS (Commercial Mobile Alert System, a system for distributing emergency alerts to mobile devices)

• FirstNet (FirstNet establishes, operates, and maintains an interoperable public safety broadband network

Technical solution

• 3GPP-compliant, scalable RAN/EPC solution availability.

FCC-mandated technical requirements

• User equipment (UE)

• Availability of FCC-certified CBRS devices • Power limits (Max 23 dBm/10MHz EIRP (200mW)

• Spectrum access system (SAS) and environmental sensing capability (ESC) certification

• Citizens Broadband radio Service Device (CBSD) and UE power levels always subject to SAS control

• Digital modulation and operation at minimum necessary power levels are required– Listen-before-talk and proprietary non-LTE radio access must be available

PAL commercial operation

• No current schedule for PAL auction

Regulatory updates

• FCC Notice for proposed rulemaking to deal with petitions related to PAL license issues

• Requests expanding license areas (PEA instead of census tracts), extending of license terms (about 10 years instead of three)

Operator partnership

• Spectrum and RAN sharing for neutral host CBRS mobile networks


4.9.3 The vEPC: an opportunity?

The core network, known as the evolved packet core (EPC), plays a significant role in the management of the LTE network. The EPC functions as the intelligence and policing for the network as well as directing communication over the network.

In a typical LTE mobile application, the EPC handles the mobility management and switching. Traditional LTE vendors offer EPC components that handle these large carrier networks, specifically to address their mobility requirements. The goal of the fixed wireless network is to provide broadband service to customers at their homes and offices – in other words to fixed locations

Mobile EPC solutions become too pricey and complex, with a core functionality unsuited for a fixed application. Their hefty price tags make them particularly cost-prohibitive for most small/medium Internet service providers such as those serving rural or developing markets. Scalability is another challenge: these mobile EPCs cannot scale down to networks with fewer than 10,000 subscribers, let alone 1,000. WISP customers – schools, hospitals, enterprises etc. – often need to deploy private LTE networks. This is not economically viable with mobile EPC.

This is where vEPC – software defined network-based EPC – becomes an ideal solution. Its built-in functionalities cater for these specific needs. At the same time it has the functionality and features for a potential future mobility play at a fraction of the cost of mobile EPC.

Figure 4–11 Fixed wireless access with vEPC


Figure 4–12 Sweet spot for broadband wireless access

4.9.4 Other opportunities

• Rural carriers are local and know their markets • Communication needs are more pronounced in rural and remote locations • Integrated and converged communication is critical in rural and remote areas • Wireless is in many cases the only viable solution in these markets • An understanding of small (and small cell) networks is crucial to come up

with viable solutions


5. Role of small cells in private cellular networks

To succeed in the role for which they are designed, private cellular networks need to be purpose-built to support unique requirements for the customer organisation. These requirements include ‘ultra-fast’ service/low latency, scalability, low capex low opex, local visibility, security and control and, of course, applications tailored to meet specific business needs. In some scenarios private networks also need to support very high capacity networks such as stadiums, arenas and airports.

These purpose-built private networks may be supported by distributed functions that bring distributed network functionality where and when needed. A distributed core – that is, an evolved packet core (vEPC) – is essential in the deployment of private LTE networks. The vEPC can support a RAN-agnostic network – that is DAS, small cells, Wi-Fi and so on – to enable private LTE networks in different architectures.

While private LTE can be deployed by using either small cells or DAS, small cells have some economic advantages over traditional DAS systems. They may, for instance, be a lot cheaper. Mobile Experts suggests that CBRS small cells can be deployed at $.30 per square foot, compared to DAS at $3 per square foot.13

They also come in an increasingly diverse range of form factors. Each enterprise will have its own deployment environment – from old buildings with many thick-walled offices to glass open plan environments; from warehouses to underground factories to mines. Each of these will have its own challenges for the best installation and management of connectivity, but there will be a small cell to fit any requirement, with options ranging from conventional integrated access points to disaggregated systems whose stripped-down radio units can be deployed easily in almost any location.

By contrast, DAS is complex to deploy and optimize and unsuited either to smaller locations, where the economics are challenging, or to harsh environments such as mines and factories.

Figure 5–1 shows deployments of non-residential small cells by region, including public as well as private deployments. This shows how private networks using small cells are benefitting for a much larger ecosystem with significant economies of scale compared to proprietary solutions.

13 Joe Madden, Principal Analyst, Mobile Experts, https://bit.ly/2SgS8fT


Figure 5–1 Deployments of small cells in private networks by region

Of course, many private networks are already installed using enterprise Wi-Fi, and these will often work alongside small cells. However, in the context of service delivery to the enterprise, an important metric is simply the reduction of cellular access points required when compared to the use of Wi-Fi – especially in challenging environments. For example, an average open-pit mine of 20 x 10 km normally requires 5 to 10 access points for complete private LTE mine coverage, compared to 200+ Wi-Fi access points to cover the same footprint.14

As industries start to assess the potential of 5G to support applications that are more critical than day-to-day mobile broadband usage, they are coming up against requirements that are tough for Wi-Fi to deliver optimally. This is especially true outside the office buildings where Wi-Fi is incumbent.

Figure 5–2 shows recent and forecast growth of different types of small cell out to 2025, with both private and public enterprise dominating. This trend has been primarily driven by renewed interest from carriers in extending wireless coverage of mid-sized venues of 600,000-square feet or less.

Figure 5–3 then splits out the relative share of different types of service provider that are behind the growth in these small cell deployments. Neutral hosts are set to continue to grow strongly and we expect to be the largest type of small cell deployer by 2025. Although the relative share of MNO small cell deployment reduces, this should be viewed against a backdrop of strong growth in the overall market.

14 Cisco, Improving mining efficiency with LTE and automation, https://bit.ly/2weZNmv


Figure 5–2 New deployments of non-residential small cells by environment 2015-25

Figure 5–3 Deployment and management of non- residential small cells by service provider type 2016 to 2023 (% of installed base, global)


6. Deployment models

6.1 Self-managed

In the self-managed model the private network user purchases, owns and manages the private LTE network. Here we consider an enterprise user, but it is equally applicable to public sector users. The enterprise purchases a full LTE stack, including radio, core and home subscriber server (HSS). The enterprise provisions spectrum to operate the private LTE eNBs and UE devices. IoT applications of private LTE networks may require the enterprise to establish its own IoT platform or to get one as a service from a provider such as an MNO or one of many public cloud services.

These enterprise private LTE networks offer enterprise-grade performance and integrate into enterprise IT systems. All private LTE traffic is locally broken out to upstream services. Use cases where private LTE traffic stays in enterprise premises and wide area private LTE coverage is not required fit into this deployment model.

Availability of CBRS spectrum in the US, specifically GAA, is envisioned to support this type of deployment model. With CBRS GAA, enterprises may not necessarily have to rely on mobile network operators to get access to licensed spectrum.

Figure 6–1 Example of enterprise private LTE network

6.2 Service-Provider Managed

The managed private LTE use case is suitable for enterprises that require a third party help with their LTE network, in particular where use cases may require wide area coverage or in markets where access to spectrum is not straightforward.

The service provider may be an MNO, or in markets where innovative shared access spectrum options – like CBRS in the US – are available, neutral hosts and other parties may also be able to provide a private network offerings.

In service provider managed deployment, an enterprise purchases and owns part of the LTE network stack. Radio and, optionally, the user plane of the core network may be installed on the premises. The enterprise’s (user equipment) UEs can then exclusively access the private network on the premises.


If the user plane of the core network is also installed on the premises, all private LTE traffic could be locally broken out. This is important, as local break-out of private LTE traffic may be required for delay-sensitive IoT use cases, or where the enterprise requires its traffic not to leave its network for on-premises UEs.

The service provider plays a key role in this deployment model. This private LTE network is connected to a service provider hosted core for the control plane. The service provider may also provide device provisioning and management, an IoT platform and, importantly, spectrum. The service provider could offer physical installation of the LTE gear on-site and ongoing management of the spectrum and network, including future growth and expansion.

For use cases where the enterprise requires wide area coverage, the service provider could provide differentiated, SLA-based access to enterprise UEs on Mobile Network Operators’ public LTE networks.

Figure 6–2 An example of a managed private LTE deployment

A neutral host may install common LTE infrastructure and provide a managed private LTE network to the enterprise, along with public LTE access on the same infrastructure. To enable neutral hosting on small cells, the neutral host may use CBRS Alliance-specific neutral hosting mechanisms.

The neutral host could also use 3GPP-compliant methods for shared networks, such as a multiple operator core network (MOCN) when shared spectrum is possible or a multiple operator radio network (MORAN) when users of the neutral host small cells do not want to share spectrum


7. Standards

3GPP standards form the basis of private LTE systems as they are defined today. Thus, the operation of a private LTE system using licensed spectrum is a deployment option that can be readily addressed by mobile operators. In addition, various organizations have identified extensions to the 3GPP standards to handle a broader range of use cases as well as to support deployment in unlicensed spectrum.

In cases where unlicensed spectrum is used to complement or augment licensed spectrum, license assisted access (LAA) is described in 3GPP Release 13 and later enhanced with eLAA in Release 14.

Where unlicensed spectrum is the only spectrum used, the work of two standards organizations is worth highlighting. The MulteFire Alliance (MFA) has defined specifications mostly targeted at use in the 5 GHz band. The CBRS Alliance is focused on the dynamically licensed 3.5GHz CBRS band in the US.

These organizations take into account both fully private LTE networks and neutral host networks, where a common infrastructure is used to offer a multi-MNO service.

LAA will continue to evolve from 4G LTE to 5G new radio (NR). The NR-U standard in Release 16 will also enable fully standalone operation.

7.1 3GPP

The 3GPP LTE and NR base technology enables high device density, predictable latency and reliable connectivity throughout an enterprise. It is highly resistant to intrusions and attacks. This means that, for business and mission-critical operations, it meets the most stringent security requirements.

3GPP has identified a range of extensions to support private LTE use cases:

• LAA is used to provide unlicensed enterprise coverage or hotspot capacity, typically for MNOs. LAA adds an unlicensed secondary cell to an existing licensed (FDD or TDD) primary cell. It does this in order to augment downlink capacity and provide additional in-building coverage. LAA uses the same carrier aggregation (CA) technique used across licensed bands. It has played a key role in enabling Gbps LTE networks. LAA operates in the 5GHz UNII frequency band, referred to in 3GPP as B46.

LAA conforms to the unlicensed bands’ listen-before-talk requirement through a new LTE frame structure. In addition, dynamic channel selection is specified and the standard provides for alignment with relevant regulations.

• eLAA, defined in 3GPP Release 14, adds uplink unlicensed capability. • NR-U (unlicensed 5G NR radio technology) is currently being standardized in

Release 16. Unlike LAA, NR-U will include fully standalone unlicensed operation and will build on the eLAA feature set, enabling downlink and uplink operation. Support for additional frequency bands, including 3.5GHz, 6GHz and 60GHz, will be included.

To address next generation services, including support for networks solely for private entities like an enterprise, 3GPP SA2 has started to outline specifications for non-public networks. The work has concluded in a set of requirements in Technical Specification 22.261 and Technical Report 23.734. Normative specifications will be in

https://www.3gpp.org/


Release 16. The Technical Report looks at 5GLAN services, including support for time sensitive networking (TSN) and enhanced security.

7.2 MulteFire Alliance

The MFA Release 1.0 specification, published in 2016, is based on 3GPP Releases 13 and 14. It defines LTE operation solely in unlicensed and shared spectrum while ensuring fair sharing of spectrum with other users and technologies. The specification includes procedures for mobility, paging, initial access and efficient uplink control channels.

The soon-to-be-available MulteFire Release 1.1 specification brings new optimizations for IoT, and support for additional spectrum bands

The key MFA standards for NHN are in the MFA TS MF.202, MFA TS 36.413, MFA TS 24.301 documents.

7.3 CBRS Alliance

The CBRS-A Release 1 standard, published February 2018, describes the extensions required to 3GPP standards to enable LTE operation in the US 3.5GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service band (referred to in 3GPP as B48).

A portion of the band can be used without a license, but with authorized access. This is referred to as general authorized access (GAA). By the end of 2019, the remaining spectrum can be licensed on a countrywide basis. This is referred to as priority access licensee (PAL). Either mode of operation is applicable to private LTE deployments, though PAL is particularly well suited to business and mission-critical applications. A key element of CBRS operation is the use of a centralized database – the spectrum access system (SAS) – to ensure coexistence with incumbent military radar systems and fair access to spectrum.

Figure 7–1 Three tiered spectrum access system (CBRS-A)

https://www.multefire.org/

https://www.cbrsalliance.org/


The CBRS-A Release 1 standards include a radio, networks service and coexistence specification. The network services standard defines neutral host networks (NHN) and private networks operation. The NHN specifications are based on the MFA Release 1 specifications described above, but adapted to enable operation in line with current 3GPP specifications.

The newly released Release 2 standard adds MSO and fixed wireless use cases, non-SIM access mode (non-EPS-AKA) and UE profiles. The standard includes new LTE network identifiers for private or NHN networks, referred to as a shared HNI which will be administered by the CBRS-A. SAS operation is extended to facilitate coexistence between GAA devices. Extensions to enable inter-private network roaming are also being considered, employing diameter signalling controller (DSC)-based solutions from IP Exchange (IPX) operator(s) ‘authorized’ by CBRS-A.

Release 3 planned for the end of 2019, will include 5G NR operation in the CBRS band.

CBRS Alliance also performs certification of products compliant with these specifications under the OnGo brand.


8. Architecture options

8.1 Private LTE network architecture

Completely private, or a hybrid private-plus-MNO dual model are possible.

Figure 8–1 Completely private and hybrid private-plus-MMO LTE architectures

Deployment and integration challenges

• Complexity – Private networks can be owned and operated by small-to-medium-sized businesses. These may not have the resources or technical expertise to manage a full network with all its complexities. It is essential to provide a turnkey solution with an easily usable, graphical user interface (GUI)-based device management system.

• Automation – While bigger MNOs are used to optimizing hundreds of parameters in their network, a private network operator typically seeks to lessen its exposure to the RAN and network-level details. Hence the following aspects are necessary:

• zero-touch plug-and-play installation • fully automated provisioning • fully automated SON functionality (PCI/RSI provisioning, conflict

resolution, neighbor configuration, self-optimization and self-healing)

Procurement and management of SIM could also be offered as a service.

• Network provisioning – The backhaul and fronthaul bandwidth needs should be anticipated. This may involve using traffic models that take a five-to-ten-year horizon into consideration. Changing user behavior should also be taken into account.

• Timing – Private networks are predominantly likely to be indoors. There will be challenges related to using GPS-based timing. Network-listening-


based or other precision time protocol (PTP) types of timing will have to be built into the system design.

• Roaming with MNOs – The biggest challenge that private networks will face is the need for roaming agreements with MNOs. The smaller the scale of the private network, the harder it will be for it to acquire the necessary roaming agreements to ensure a smooth experience for UEs. The alternative is to run a fully closed network, accessible to only the private UEs. This, however, will be inferior to a typical office Wi-Fi network that offers ‘guest’ access.

• Interoperability with MNOs – Alongside the roaming issue comes to the issue of interoperability with MNO networks. For a small private operator, interfaces such as X2 with neighboring MNO network elements are not likely.

Figure 8–2 Private network deployed as described in 3GPP TS 23.401


8.2 Private LTE with edge computing

Enterprises have an excellent opportunity to take advantage of edge computing on private cellular infrastructure from carriers, neutral hosts, user enterprise-owned equipment, or a hybrid combination of all of these.

Edge computing is, potentially, a key enabler for private cellular networks, delivering access to virtualized resources. Introducing virtualization into a private cellular network helps deliver a solution for latency-sensitive and high-bandwidth applications.

There is also the promise of network slicing, where delivering network resources to specific customer requirements could lead to innovative opportunities between enterprises, infrastructure, and service providers.

Finally, evolving technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), software-defined networking (SDN), and 5G are driving innovations in the development of software applications across several enterprise domains. Figure 8–3 shows some of the key evolving technologies that could potentially exist in a private cellular network.

Enterprise Site Edge Site Core Site

Figure 8–3 Evolving technologies in a private cellular network

High-level architecture

The network architecture of a private cellular network includes RAN components and the core network built on-premises and/or in the cloud.

The edge infrastructure can be a scaled-down version of the standard 3GPP core software running on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware. In this case, the


separation of the control plane functions from the user plane becomes vital to help reduce complexity for the end user and service management down to the individual node in an enterprise network. Figure 8–4 shows the hierarchy of a private network including the edge computing layer.

Figure 8–4 Private cellular network hierarchy

Applications

Low-latency private cellular networks could enable a variety of delay-sensitive applications for enterprises. Examples of these include VoLTE, IoT, push-to-talk/video, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR). In particular, IoT sensors in the enterprise and edge computing applications can supply real-time insights and data analytics opportunities. It’s also important to remember that 5G networks are primarily driven by software; using the network exposure function (NEF) exposes the network/UE events to third-party applications.

Locations

The edge computing hardware hosting the EPC and the applications could be on-premises in the enterprise. However, if there are space/power limitations a decentralized off-premises location could also be ideal. Off-premises locations such as point of presence (PoP), hub sites, tower, or collocation sites could potentially deliver edge locations for a private cellular network.

Business perspectives

Hosting edge computing hardware at off-premises locations allows the distribution of applications from the cloud. Several enterprises or office locations can share the infrastructure. This lowers the hosting costs, creating a multi-tenant facility.

The challenge in making these localized sub-nets a reality is the question of who will deploy, manage and monetize them. Some large enterprises may want to deploy for themselves, with the connectivity element harnessing shared spectrum, spectrum leased from MNOs, or their own licences (see previous item). But most companies, and their integrators, will lack the expertise to do both cellular and edge compute. A more attractive option for most will be to entrust the edge+cellular infrastructure, security, management and services enablement to a third party, allowing their own teams, or their specialist service providers, to use the resulting platform to support their applications.


9. Private networks in the 5G era

By now it should be clear that PCNs are not a use case waiting for 5G to happen. PCNs and LTE play well together to address user concerns about reliability and service quality as well as about security and compliance.

There are plenty of current commercial deployments. Clearly robust private LTE solutions are already available today that can seamlessly migrate to support private 5G networks when standards and ecosystem support full commercial deployment. And as we have seen with the commercial deployments cited above (4), a broad range of private network requirements can already be delivered using LTE.

However, it’s equally true that 5G specifications hold the promise of additional opportunities. Where enterprises have more demanding performance requirements – e.g., availability, reliability, latency, device density etc – 5G implies a significant uplift in the potential of private networks.

5G offers enhanced mechanisms to provide private network access to industries and enterprises. The three elements in 3GPP Releases 15 and 16 that specify the enhancements are well known and collectively especially valuable in an industrial context:

• Ultra-reliable low-latency communication (uRLLC). This is a set of features that provides low latency and ultra-high reliability for mission critical applications – e.g., the industrial internet, smart grids and intelligent transportation systems – with reliability levels broadly equivalent to those of a wired connection.

• Massive machine-type communications (mMTC). mMTC enables extremely high connection densities – supporting the requirement to connect a very large number of devices in a small area, which may only send data intermittently, such as sensors and IoT devices.

• Enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB). eMBB, which was included in Release 15, supports data-driven use cases requiring high data rates across wide coverage areas.

• At a system level, in addition to improved security, new authentication methods and standardised edge deployment, 5G brings network slicing for the managed private (MNO) deployment. Network slicing, which allows isolated, secure and performance-guaranteed network slices to be provisioned over common 5G infrastructure to private users. 3GPP has implemented new QoS constructs to enable network slicing over both the 5G access and the core.


Figure 9–1 Deployment of small cells in private networks – 4G or 5G

There is an opportunity here for MNOs to provision managed private 5G networks to enterprises using network slicing. In premises where existing 5G coverage is missing, operators can enhance that coverage with 5G indoor or outdoor small cells. These small cells could form part of the MNO’s public network infrastructure over which a slice for private 5G access could be provisioned for the enterprise. Alternately, the 5G radio network could be completely private supported via a network-sliced MNO 5G core.

5G air interface enhancement for QoS allows the UE to have different QoS profiles simultaneously. The UE could be attached to a private network slice while on-premises in the enterprise with one QoS profile (5CI). When outside the enterprise premises, the UE could move to a public network slice. Together, 5G network slicing and QoS mechanisms could enable MNOs to realize richer private network offerings.

The type of network coverage will also be impacted by 5G. Specifically, use cases that require very high throughputs or very low latency could be best served with mmWave spectrum bands. Due to larger sub-carrier spacing of mmWave bands – and due also to 5G-specific air interface optimizations – 5G private networks would be able to provide extremely low latencies of around 1 ms. Spectrum bands with 100s of MHz or more spectrum could support very high bit rates in the range of 1 Gbps or higher.


10. 5G orchestration for non-public networks

The evolving 5G ecosystem represents both a solution and service factory for each and every enterprise and connectivity business case. The transition from 4G to 5G has brought a lot of opportunities for neutral host and private network operators to coexist in partnership with mobile network operators and, at the same time, seen the emergence of a completely isolated network. Building a next generation fully cloud native exchange-to-exchange (E2E) orchestrator is a major challenge.

According to a recent report from TM Forum, up to 72% of 5G revenue growth is directly dependent on OSS/BSS. In addition, failing to modernize OSS/BSS will negatively impact 67% of potential revenue15.

Major challenges

1. Centralized OSS/ BSS system with legacy architecture and based on reactive rather than pro-active approach.

2. FCAP data collection and closed looped decisions are too slow for the 5G network.

3. A big portion of it is manual and needs human intervention. 4. A lot of these process needs automation and a lot of machine and deep

learning support. 5. No guarantee of QoS E2E especially in case of 5G networks which evolved

from MNO based NW to MNO, PNO and NH shared NW. 6. Lack of predictability and prevention before the problem occurs.

Major opportunities

1. Decentralized OSS/BSS system with lots of support on predictive and prevention of NW issues.

2. A good balance of regional NoC processing a lot of data and feeding to the centralized NoC.

3. A real time SAS (service assurance system) is needed for URLLC and factory 4.0 networks.

4. NFV (VNF & CNF) based light weight distributed real-time OSS/BSS. 5. E2E SLA management between MNO, PNO and NH Networks. 6. E2E service-based assurance and KPI management to meet SLA. 7. Highly flexible data base management with efficient AI/ ML algorithm and

analytics support.

10.2 Orchestration for PNO + MNO integrated private network

Public private partnerships between PNOs and MNOs provides a hybrid architecture of coexistence with technologies like MOCN, MORAN, network slicing, unified service fabric but the major challenge is to provide an end to end orchestration with fully automated SLA. The following architecture provides a glimpse of light weight fully cloud native orchestrators with co-existence and automation of E2E SLA.

15 https://inform.tmforum.org/research-reports/5g-monetization-operational-imperatives/

https://inform.tmforum.org/research-reports/5g-monetization-operational-imperatives/

https://inform.tmforum.org/research-reports/5g-monetization-operational-imperatives/


Figure 10–1 Orchestration for integrated private 5G network

Key points to note:

1. The mobile network operator will own the policy administration as well as service orchestration.

2. The private network operator may have their own service orchestrator for their localized services.

3. The SLA broker at both ends can automate the E2E business agreements between MNO and PNO.

4. Life cycle and infra management can scale up or down, according to cluster arrangements, workloads, scheduling, traffic and security.

10.3 Orchestration for isolated non-public network

Figure 10–2 Orchestration for isolated private 5G network

Key points to note:

1. Isolated private or non-public network is based on a fully cloud native K8S based architecture.

2. Service orchestrator and policy administrator is fully owned by the PNO for all the localized services and SLA requirements.

3. Life cycle and infra management can scale up or down, according to cluster arrangements, workloads, scheduling, traffic and security.


11. SCF recommendations

Private LTE allows enterprise across a broad range of verticals to control their own communications environment and tailor it to meet their business requirements. This is a solution that represents a significant opportunity for vendors and a broad range of service providers but for that opportunity to ramp and scale globally, SCF proposes the following recommendations which we’ve addressed according to the type of deployment.

11.1 Common recommendations

11.1.1 Private cellular networks and Enterprise IT integration

• Evolving sector requirements and deployment models must continue to be analysed to ensure seamless PCN/Enterprise integration to be sure IT teams can manage PCNs, just as with current Wi-Fi networks

• Guidelines to be developed to ensure Enterprise security considerations are fully addressed

11.1.2 Private cellular networks and small cell networks

• Guidelines required for how small cell networks must be optimized for deployment and management by Enterprise IT teams

• Common approach to how small cell networks must be configurable for various types and numbers of access control and privileges.

• Recommendations required to show small cell networks might be enriched, as needed, with the appropriate network analytics, to enable local management of PCNs.

• SCNs must be manageable by methods familiar to the enterprise IT personnel.

• PCNs require significant investment in short term. The business model needs carefully assessed to determine the economics (who is willing and able to invest and how money is to be made).

• Suppliers need to carefully price 5G ready solutions to avoid ‘sticker shock’ to potential enterprise customers.

11.2 Recommendations for completely isolated PCNs

• A strong case needs to be made to national regulators for the positive socio-economic impact for the availability of spectrum ‘assigned’ for private cellular network. It could be shared or exclusive. For international enterprise to be able to adopt common solutions – regardless of where they are operating – a universal approach to spectrum allocation with uniform bands is useful and necessary.

• This allocation should be sufficiently large, to meet the needs of Industry 4.0. It could preferably include bands in the Sub-6 GHz bands.

• Licensing terms need to be practical and commercially realistic, in terms of low cost, large spatial granularity, etc.

11.3 Recommendations for PCNs with roaming

• Technical Solutions and standards for roaming must be able to scale down to meet the needs of ‘small’ PCNs.


• Such solutions should be able also to scale to accommodate ‘large’ numbers of PCNs

• The concept of PCN aggregators should be explored, to alleviate the above problems.

• The industry needs to agree standardized reference SLA templates to avoid reinventing the wheel for every deployment.

• In some cases, the roaming solutions may need to accommodate multiple MNOs, which adds further complexity to the overall PCN solutions, which should be explored.

• The operational aspects of large numbers of PCNs including several small PCNs with roaming relationships to potentially multiple MNOs can be daunting and should be carefully studied in detail.

• It is recommended that SCF works with GSMA for the above topics of roaming, SLA and operations.

11.4 Recommendations for PCN with MNO integration

• Best practises for the various types of MNO integration need to be agreed and disseminated, along with exemplar use cases and business models.

• Security and service level seamlessness should be studied and best practices recommended.

• Legal interception matters must be resolved for various levels of commercially viable integration.

• The intersection of edge computing and PCNs should be studied and mutually leveraged (technical and standards).

• Open specifications should facilitate a rich ecosystem of multiple vendors, while allowing for implementing innovative solutions from MNOs & Enterprises.

SCF Approved


References

1. Market Drivers for Small Cells] Small Cell Forum SCF017.06.01, Multi-operator market drivers1

2. [22.951] 3GPP TS 22.951, Service aspects and requirements for network sharing2

3. [23.251] 3GPP TS 23.251, Network sharing; Architecture and functional description3

4. [23.402] 3GPP TS 23.402, Architecture enhancements for non-3GPP accesses4

5. [MulteFire] MulteFire Alliance5

6. MulteFire Release 1.0 Technical Paper6

7. CBRS: New Shared Spectrum Enables Flexible Indoor and Outdoor Mobile Solutions and New Business Models7

Documents

Private Cellular Networks with Small Cells · networks will be local government, including networks to support public safety and smart cities. Other important sectors include manufacturing,