Refineries are among the most hostile environments for Wi-Fi. Steel pipes, massive storage tanks and dense industrial structures absorb and block Wi-Fi signals, creating dead zones where connectivity simply doesn’t reach.
Even where coverage exists, interference from industrial machinery, high RF noise and fluctuating environmental conditions make Wi-Fi unstable and unreliable. Expanding coverage requires an excessive number of access points, increasing infrastructure costs, cabling complexity and security vulnerabilities - without ever fully solving the connectivity problem.
The stakes are high too. A single hour of unplanned downtime costs refineries many thousands. A missed gas leak could endanger lives. A delayed inspection risks regulatory fines.
These are just some of the problems faced by this US refinery and how they solved it with a strategic shift to private 5G.
Why this refinery’s legacy network was failing
For years, this US refinery - spanning 260 football fields -relied on a patchwork of 300+ Wi-Fi access points to cover its0.55-square-mile footprint. But keeping the network running had become unsustainable. Specifically, they faced:
- 35% coverage gaps in metal-dense zones, forcing workers to revert to clipboards
- 112 annual downtime hours caused by connectivity drops during inspections
- $1.2M in annual costs for AP maintenance, cabling and security patches.
Public cellular wasn’t an option either. They knew coverage would be inconsistent and shared network congestion meant no guaranteed quality of service (QoS).
Private 5G as a strategic asset in oil and gas
The refinery’s leadership team evaluated and selected Celona Private 5G, deploying 10 radios using the CBRS spectrum (3.5 GHz).The outcome redefined what industrial connectivity could achieve.
Here’s how the technical elements of Celona’s 5G deployment addressed their most critical challenges.
Cutting through steel with mid-band spectrum
Wi-Fi’s high-frequency signals (2.4/5 GHz) struggle to penetrate steel with Wi-Fi waves getting absorbed or reflected by pipes and tanks. This is what creates those frustrating dead zones.
Celona Private 5G leverages CBRS (Citizens Broadband Radio Service) spectrum at 3.5 GHz - a type of ‘Goldilocks’ band that balances reach and data capacity:
- A lower frequency than Wi-Fi means longer wavelengths bend around obstacles and penetrate metal more effectively.
- FCC rules allow CBRS radios to transmit at up to 47 dBm (50 watts), compared to Wi-Fi’s 1-watt limit. This lets a single 5G radio cover areas needing 30+ Wi-Fi APs.
- Celona’s radios use advanced antennas to ‘steer’ signals directionally and combine multiple data streams (4x4 MIMO), ensuring stable connections even in steel-dense zones.
- Once Celona Private 5G was deployed, the refinery achieved 95% coverage across 0.55 square miles - including previously unreachable areas like boiler rooms and underground pipelines.
Zero Trust networks and industrial-grade QoS
Wi-Fi treats all data equally, for example, a video call competes with a gas sensor for bandwidth. For the refinery, Wi-Fi’s ‘best effort’ approach meant they were unable to prioritize critical alerts, such as gas leaks. But with Celona’s Private 5G using network slicing to carve virtual ‘express lanes’ for critical systems, the refinery finally had granular control over priority and non-priority traffic:
- Priority 1 (emergency lane): Gas leak sensors and shutdown commands get guaranteed latency of 30 ms - faster than a human blink.
- Priority 2 (inspection lane): Live drone feeds and AR work orders operate under <100 ms latency, ensuring real-time clarity.
- Priority 3 (background lane): Non-urgent data - like temperature logs - uses leftover bandwidth.
This resulted in the refineries gas leak alerts reaching control rooms in 2 seconds - down from 15+ seconds on Wi-Fi - slashing emergency response times by 87%.
No more “master keys”
With Wi-Fi, one compromised credential can expose the entire network. Celona’s 5G replaced this with SIM/eSIM authentication, giving each device a unique, unhackable identity - like a digital fingerprint. It also leveraged Zero Trust compliance, aligned with NIST guidelines, to verify every device and user before granting access. This dropped security breaches by 92%, while IT teams gained complete control over who - and what - connects.
Timing is everything
In noisy industrial environments, even a millisecond timing error can crash drones or corrupt sensor data. To combat this, Celona’s 5G radios use GPS/PTP Sync to synchronize all devices within 1 microsecond - like ensuring every instrument in an orchestra plays in perfect harmony. Predictable handoffs meant roaming between zones remains seamless - even at 25 mph on inspection vehicles - making drone collision warnings 100% reliable and reducing sensor data errors to near zero.
Why Private 5G matters for leadership teams
For CTOs and operations chiefs, the refinery’s story offers three strategic lessons:
1. Spectrum is the new real estate | The CBRS band’s ‘sweet spot’ of cost and control makes it ideal for industrial 5G. Unlike licensed spectrum, it requires no carrier partnerships - a win for IT/OT teams prioritizing autonomy.
2. Mobility is essential | Refineries rely on seamless handoffs between zones. This refinery tested “walkability” paths near flare stacks and reactors to ensure always-on connectivity in harsh RF conditions.
3. Integrate early, scale fast | Embedding 5G with legacy OT systems (e.g., SCADA, Emerson DCS) from the start prevented expensive retrofits down the line.
Where Wi-Fi and public cellular struggled - defeated by steel-clad dead zones, security flaws and ‘best effort’ reliability - private5G delivered. By harnessing the CBRS spectrum’s unique physics, the refinery has the solution needed to significantly reduce coverage gaps, improve operational safety and slash emergency response times.
