Some have called it, probably exaggerating, the “network of wonders”. Others as the key technology for the development of the digital society. There is no doubt that 5G carries with it a very significant load of expectations, because there are many opportunities for transformation at the process level that the fifth generation mobile network can bring into play, both for the performance that is decidedly superior to that of the wireless standard immediately. previous, you want to be able to connect many more devices at the same time in very high bandwidth.
Cross industry innovation
The operational advantages of 5G are not in question, especially when combined with other technologies such as edge computing, the Internet of Things or artificial intelligence to build state-of-the-art communication infrastructures in any field. In fact, there is talk of predictive maintenance of machines and systems, of mobile robots used in production, of autonomous vehicles of various kinds, of augmented reality applications for those who provide technical assistance in the field. And then again the health sector with remote medical assistance services, that of logistics for the intelligent movement of vehicles and goods, the agricultural sector for monitoring the soil and crops or that of smart grids and smart cities. It is difficult to find a context in which the data transmission capacity of super-fast mobile network technology cannot be used. The problem, if anything, is to ensure that the technology itself is open (to all) and is fully interoperable. The imprinting given by bodies such as the 5G Alliance for Connected Industries and Automation and 5G Automotive Association goes in the (correct) direction of referring to specific use cases of the various vertical sectors to define the technical specifications to be adopted as standards, at least in part by the guidelines dictated by the telco carriers.
The new paradigm of network infrastructures
The promised leap forward in terms of innovation that accompanied the development and the first phase of the diffusion of new generation mobile services did not entirely confirm the initial expectations. And there are precise reasons that explain why this has happened and is still happening. “When we talk about 5G – Massimo Peselli, Senior Vice President Global Enterprise of Verizon Business told Sole24ore – some areas of impact must be considered and the first is mobile connectivity services for the consumer world: at the moment there has been no true disruption, perhaps we will see it with virtual reality or augmented reality and the metaverse. A second important use case of the technology is the use of wireless technology to power broadband networks, a phenomenon that has literally taken off in the US, where we have increased fixed wireless access sales by a factor of 30 in the last 12-18 months ”. Using hybrid cable and wireless connection systems to offer ultra-broadband connectivity is a well-established practice, as well as easy to perform, safe and increasingly convenient, as Peselli recalls, also from an economic point of view thanks to the superior width. of usable spectrum (up to the 2 Ghz limit). But if the greater density of antennas is an advantage, it is also true that it is also necessary to lay a lot of fiber close to the antennas themselves (and therefore important investments) to avoid the so-called “bottlenecks” on the distribution of the band. The benefit of this approach is greater geographical coverage of broadband lines and the possibility of maximizing the pervasiveness of 5G in all sectors thanks to the great flexibility of access in “as a service” mode to the capabilities of this technology. A new paradigm for next-generation broadband connectivity, in short, built on wireless technology and faster to implement, with performance ranging from a minimum of 100 Gigabit to the maximum limit of 2 actual Gigabit.
The Verizon Business recipe
5G private networks, which Verizon Business launched (in partnership with Nokia) on an international scale in October 2020 in Europe and for the Asia-Pacific market, are another face of this new paradigm. The concept is to be able to implement a customized enterprise-level mobile network directly within a logistics hub, a production plant or a port area, ensuring extremely low latency levels and eliminating the need to transmit data over public networks. . “Until a few years ago – Peselli observes – the applications of this technology were proofpoints, today they are real projects that allow you to trace the movements of containers, the operation of machines or the positioning of people”. The Port of Southampton in the United Kingdom (which transits goods, people and 900,000 vehicles per year) is an example of how a private 5G network and a data distribution system on a single wireless network can be the starting point for build a fully dedicated edge computing infrastructure to make processes more efficient. The management of images and videos, the monitoring of robots in factories and warehouses powered by sensors, process and final product control, predictive maintenance with the aid of machine learning algorithms: the possible applications are different and yet lacking, as the Verizon manager observes, a real killer application, private 5G is synonymous with real-time data collection and analysis. And safety. Because today operation technology communicates with information technology in an increasingly structured way and only a private network protected from the outside world can be a guarantee of total data reliability.
The regulatory stumbling block
If today Verizon can exhibit in the United States (above all), the United Kingdom and Germany a dozen “use cases” already active for its private 5G solutions and a hundred on the launch pad, it is because in these countries there is a regulation that provides for the possibility to rent the available frequency spectrum to implement mobile networks and edge computing systems “in house”. And in Italy? He talks about it, and the question begins to take shape. “Our companies – Peselli specifies in this regard – perceive this opportunity but still see it far away, and are not yet ready to spend time and money on it. With two Italian companies, however, we are working in the United States to test the advantages of technology in our centers. research and develop some solutions that can be imported into their respective IT infrastructures. Today we are at the point of American companies 18 months ago and to fill the gap we need an adequate regulatory framework to encourage the use of these solutions ”.