Private 5G for Outdoor Connectivity – Why & How

July 22, 2024

Why private 5G?

In today’s digital age, seamless and reliable wireless network coverage is a must-have for any environment. This gets increasingly difficult as the environment gets larger indoors and/or outdoors. Whether it’s a university, corporate campus, or a large industrial complex, ensuring robust outdoor coverage can be especially challenging, yet also crucial for enhancing communication, productivity, and overall user experience.

Options to effectively provide outdoor wireless coverage are limited in both the number of choices and due to high costs. Public 5G is limited by the availability of public towers in a given area. It can also be an expensive proposition with per subscriber pricing. Additionally, it compromises the security and privacy posture of an organization by requiring private traffic to traverse via public cellular networks.

Wi-Fi, while the default standard for indoor office and public area wireless networks, has several limitations and major expenses for wide-ranging outdoor coverage.

Private 5G cellular coverage avoids the above problems with public 5G and surpasses Wi-Fi and wireless technologies like microwave in outdoor environments needing broad coverage, high data rates, low latency, and robust connectivity. These factors make private cellular the preferred choice for providing outdoor wireless connectivity:

Extended range: For coverage outdoors in a large campus, industrial site, or agricultural facility, the required density of outdoor Wi-Fi APs + the required trenching for power and network connectivity to each AP, can make it a cost-prohibitive install. In comparison, a few outdoor private 5G cellular APs strategically placed on selected building tops/tall structures, with existing access to power and Ethernet, provide much greater coverage range and are more practical and cost-effective to deploy.

Robustness: Designed to operate in harsh environments, private 5G is more robust and reliable for industrial applications compared to Wi-Fi, which is often not suitable for such demanding conditions. Additionally, IoT devices may be prone to interference issues with Wi-Fi that can be avoided when using cellular bands.

Seamless mobility: Cellular, such as private 5G, provides superior handoff capabilities and maintains connectivity for users and devices moving at high speeds, a critical feature for outdoor and combined indoor/outdoor applications such as connected logistics and mobile workforce solutions.

Built-in security: Private 5G networks incorporate advanced security protocols and encryption mechanisms, offering enhanced protection against cyber threats compared to Wi-Fi, which is often perceived as less secure due to vulnerabilities in older encryption standards.

Dedicated spectrum: Private 5G networks can operate on dedicated or lightly licensed spectrum bands, reducing the risk of interference commonly encountered in the unlicensed spectrum used by Wi-Fi. This leads to more reliable and predictable network performance.

Customization: Private 5G networks can be tailored to meet specific enterprise requirements, offering customized service levels, latency, and security tailored to industrial automation, smart manufacturing, critical infrastructure and other use cases.

Planning an outdoor private 5G deployment

As with any wireless deployment, coverage planning is required for private 5G to scope the required number of APs and attached antennas to be deployed, including their type, site location, direction, and installation material for each.

These are key deployment considerations for an effective outdoor private 5G networks for your campus:

1. Define objectives and requirements

Identify use cases: Determine the sites of service for specific applications and use cases for the private 5G network, such as high-speed Internet access, IoT connectivity, augmented reality, and/or autonomous vehicles.
Performance metrics: Define key performance indicators (KPIs) such as data rates, latency, coverage area, and device density.
Traffic volume: Estimate the number of users and devices that will be connected to the network.

2. Conduct a site survey

Existing infrastructure: Assess current network infrastructure, including Wi-Fi networks, fiber backhaul, and existing cellular coverage.
Coverage analysis: Identify coverage areas, dead zones, and potential interference sources.
Environmental factors: Consider physical obstructions (e.g. buildings and trees), terrain, and weather conditions that might affect signal propagation.

3. Network design and planning

Cell site placement: Strategically place macro cells and small cells to ensure comprehensive coverage, capacity and seamless mobility. Consider high-traffic areas and key facilities.
5G radios and antennas: Choose appropriate 5G radios and antennas that meet your assessed performance requirements and environmental conditions.

4. Backhaul and connectivity

High-capacity backhaul: Ensure reliable and high-capacity backhaul connections using fiber optics or microwave links to connect the 5G cells to the core network.
Redundancy: Design for redundancy and with failover capabilities to ensure network reliability and uptime.

By carefully defining objectives, conducting thorough site surveys, designing a robust network architecture, and ensuring security and compliance, you can create a high-performance private 5G network that meets the diverse needs of an outdoor campus. With proper planning and execution, outdoor users can enjoy the benefits of private 5G including enhanced connectivity, improved performance, and support for innovative applications…resulting in higher productivity and user satisfaction.

In the next chapters of this blog series, we present a set of examples to illustrate the above strategy and process in practice. The first example is a factory campus with a central core of building(s)/structures surrounded by parking lots, storage facilities, farm areas. Typically, on such a campus APs will be put on the central building(s) radiating outwards. The second example is of a university or a larger corporate campus with many buildings spread out and requiring APs to be placed on multiple locations to cover the campus. The third example covers rural agricultural farms both small and large. The constraints of power and Internet availability in such a rural setting can be quite acute.