"The fast speeds and ability of mid-band 5G wireless signal to go through trees and other obstacles mean companies can use it for mundane but important tasks like connecting to machines without running cables to them. Other applications include, for example, connecting and tracking equipment such as forklifts and cranes in ports in China.
Companies are adopting more robots and automation in factories and warehouses, and as these devices become more autonomous and reliant on artificial intelligence, there's a need for ultrafast connections between these robots and the computers inside the same buildings, to help them make sense of their surroundings.
Robots that rely on remote computers to process what they are seeing, and to tell them how to react from one millisecond to the next, need low latency -- the lag between when a signal is sent and when it arrives somewhere else in a network. The way 5G radios behave gives them lower latency and greater reliability than any other wireless option, says Rajeev Shah, CEO and co-founder of Celona. His Cupertino, Calif.-based startup is now piloting 5G and 4G LTE private networks with more than 30 different companies and schools.
Paradoxically, 5G is so fast, the internet itself can be a bottleneck. If robots, sensors and other devices are to communicate without delays, they need to connect to computers on the premises, not in the cloud, says Mr. Westcott.
For many of the world's largest multinationals, the goal of rolling out 5G is making their operations more automated and efficient, a process some call the fourth industrial revolution.
Private 5G networks are like your home Wi-Fi, except instead of a router, they use radios called cell sites, each with a range of a mile or more outdoors. Like a Wi-Fi router, a cell site must be tied to the internet through a physical cable, or wirelessly, through another cell site. One big difference is the software running the system. In a cellular system, all the traffic is tightly controlled and centrally organized, giving every connection enhanced speed and reliability.
Traditionally, the software that runs these 5G networks was written by the companies selling their hardware, including giants like Nokia, Ericsson and Huawei. But in February 2019, engineers at Facebook open-sourced Magma, software that anyone could use as the operating system, or core, of their own network.
Another critical element of a cell network is spectrum, the range of radio frequencies participating devices must keep to. The carriers have, over the years, paid billions in government auctions for exclusive access to wireless spectrum. But now there's a slice that isn't entirely under their control.
The Federal Communications Commission recently opened up a patch of mid-band spectrum known as the Citizens Broadband Radio Service. Some of the CBRS band is available to anyone who wants to register for it, as long as they specify where and how they want to use it for their own network. The last time a chunk of spectrum was made this accessible by the U.S. government was in 2003, when more airwaves in the 5 gigahertz range were freed up for Wi-Fi.
All in, a company or individual can now set up their own single-site 5G network for less than $5,000, says Boris Renski, chief executive and founder of FreedomFi, which sells a version of the open-source Magma software to customers such as Mr. Bangert's WiConnect.
In a December 2019 report, analysts at Deloitte predicted that by the end of 2020, more than 100 companies world-wide will have begun testing their own private 5G networks. That includes organizations such as Ford Motor Co., Corning Inc., BMW AG, BASF SE, China's state-owned Shandong Energy Group, and the U.S. military, which by itself is pouring $600 million into five different projects." [1]
1. EXCHANGE --- Keywords: Do-It-Yourself 5G --- Seeking better speed, companies roll out their own networks. Mims, Christopher. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]07 Nov 2020: B.2.
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