According to a new report by ResearchAndMarkets.com, Global Private Wireless Networks will become a dominant trend for the decades to come as the enterprise and industrial segments seek to gain more control and reduce dependency upon carrier networks. The report evaluates the private wireless market including LTE and 5G as well as supporting mobile edge computing solutions. It also assesses the market drivers for private wireless implementation and the technology needs for operational support.
The role of third-party application management providers is also investigated such as over-the-top provider support of edge computing apps and services. The report evaluates the market for edge computing, private LTE and 5G for enterprise and industrial segments, and private LTE for government networks including public safety. It includes a forecast for the aforementioned as well as the 5G indoor wireless market from 2019 to 2024.
Private networks will leverage LTE and 5G for internal/onsite coverage as well as intra-company communications between business locations including smart buildings, factories, and other facilities. Spectrum to deploy private LTE and 5G networks includes licensed, unlicensed, and shared to regionally dedicated.
Over ninety percent of industrial facilities continue to rely upon wired connections such as industrial Ethernet. Unlike prior iterations of cellular, 5G will provide a viable alternative to fixed connectivity for smart factories and other facilities that suffer from signal quality issues due to interference. With private LTE maturing just as 5G is soon to come into commercial existence, the industrial internet market will have options for leveraging 4G for a portion of their needs and 5G New Radio (5G-NR) for more mission-critical communications.
5G-NR has a very important role in support of Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) and Time Sensitive Networks (TSN). For example, certain industrial applications require URLLC and TSN support that cannot be supported by WiFi. For critical communications and IoT apps, 5G represents an alternative to WiFi that provides the type of URLLC support needed for certain mission-critical solutions such as those found in industrial automation. For example, the need to get periodic updates related to pressure values of a critical industrial machine represents a need for ultra-reliability as one missed measurement could mean a damaged machine(s), lost productivity, and/or other bad consequences.
For business and government users, there is the option to utilize edge computing, LTE and 5G infrastructure from incumbent carriers, use enterprise-owned equipment, or a hybrid combination of both. In all cases, enterprise and industrial customers will need to also deploy Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) infrastructure to ensure low latency communications. MEC platforms need to be close to the point of computing to ensure low latency as required by certain applications. This is in contrast with the traditional centralized cloud computing model that requires back-haul, which is a major factor in reducing overall data throughput.
While some of the aforementioned will be offered by carriers on an infrastructure as a service or platform as a service basis, many private wireless deployments will be completely owned and/or controlled by the business itself. In these instances, business customers will interface with legacy carrier networks only for communications as a service and the associated ability to connect to the rest-of-world outside the business domain. Some computing and communications platform vendors, such as Nokia, will go directly to business customers with infrastructure and services to roll out private LTE and 5G networks.
View the full report: "Private Wireless Networks by LTE, 5G, and Edge Computing in Enterprise, Industrial, and Government Solutions 2019-2024"
