What is a Mobile Private Network & How Does It Work?

Benefits of a Mobile Private Network

MPNs are valuable for critical applications that require extremely low latency, uninterrupted mobility, high availability, and ubiquitous coverage. MPNs provide businesses with more flexibility, privacy, and control over their cellular resources compared to commercial carriers.

Businesses can expect the following benefits across their MPN:

Flexibility

Organizations have full control over their private networks and its integration with existing IT infrastructure and IP network services. MPNs can be finely tuned to meet budget, coverage, and service quality requirements across different use cases.This flexibility is especially important to enterprise networks that require predictable connectivity, enhanced security and deterministic wireless performance.

Resource Control

Advanced private mobile networks allow administrators to control their cellular resources on a granular device or application-based level. For example, rather than sharing a quality of service level for all devices or applications, administrators can set SLAs and associated QoS enforcement for individual applications or device groups across their private 5G network. This ensures that different applications continuously receive the precise resources, such as throughput, latency or packet loss, they require to operate at their fullest potential.

Privacy

Mobile private networks, such as 5G LANs, put the organization in full control of its data and data paths, ensuring data privacy and supporting compliance initiatives. With public 5G networks the collective concern is that with faster and more capable networks, mobile network operators will simply have more access to more data, including corporate data through 5G-connected devices. Since many MPNs are managed internally, businesses have significantly more insight and control over how their data is handled and routed. When businesses have full control over their spectrum, infrastructure, and devices, they maintain control over their intellectual property and data security.

Mobile Private Network Use Cases

In a public environment, such as a hospital or large public venue, predictable connectivity is a top priority. The network must be secure and reliable, especially for live-saving systems. In this case, 4G/5G networks are ideally suited for this application, but can still co-exist along Wi-Fi and other wireless networks. 

Many business applications require high bandwidth and low latency. For instance, industrial applications, such as robotics or automated inventory control, require constant connectivity, due to their mobility and application response demands.

Autonomous machines, robotics, and augmented reality demand continuous low-latency connections in order to function reliably. Enterprises can design MPNs based on their unique environments to ensure their network can support their business now, and in the future.

Building Your Own Mobile Private Network

While building your own mobile private network has gotten easier over the years, it still involves planning and cellular knowledge. If you’re planning to build your own MPN, there are a few components you’ll want to make note of.

Shared Cellular Spectrum

Upon a complete site survey, one of the first things you’ll need to build your MPN is a dedicated spectrum. Many Mobile Private Networks in the United States make use of new CBRS spectrum, which enables businesses to secure blocks of spectrum in their county. 

Communications on the CBRS spectrum are protected from interference from other devices thanks to the Spectrum Access System, which enforces spectrum allocation rules set by the FCC. Outside the U.S. shared spectrum is licensed by the local governing authority as companies request access to the spectrum.

Access Points

Private cellular access points can be easily installed both indoors and outdoors, much like Wi-Fi access points, to meet specific coverage needs. These access points can extend your wireless signals and improve coverage in challenging areas. 5G small cells are particularly useful for filling coverage gaps, addressing wireless interference issues, and providing high-performance localized coverage to areas where performance matters most.

4G/5G Core

You can think of your mobile core as the brains of the operation. Your 4G/5G core is responsible for data aggregation and control functions, providing a variety of crucial network services across your MPN. Microslicing, authentication, traffic management, security and mobility management are just a few services a mobile core can provide.

Devices

Lastly, devices must be CBRS (Band 48) compatible to function on your MPN. Thankfully, there’s a wide variety of devices to choose from. Unlike Wi-Fi networks, cellular devices don’t need to remember a password to join the network. Instead, each device authenticates via eSIM or a physical SIM card. Administrators can quickly provision devices via a QR scan when using eSIM during setup. 

For Laptops, IoT sensors, cellphones, tablets, or desktops that don’t provide native cellular support, mobile routers that translate CBRS to Wi-Fi or Ethernet can be used to allow these devices to easily connect to your Mobile Private Network. Administrators can even set devices to use both private and public networks depending on where and what the device is.

Mobile Private Networks Simplified with Celona

Celona takes the complexity out of MPNs by partnering with enterprises to plan, build, and manage mobile private networks as a seamless turnkey 5G LAN solution.

As part of a Celona 5G LAN network, can be quickly deployed throughout an enterprise facility, enforcing service level objectives to key applications and enabling proactive monitoring of throughput and latency requirements.

By adopting cloud networking principles, a Celona 5G LAN makes implementing private cellular wireless for IoT architecture and systems an out-of-box experience. With its ability to directly integrate with enterprise network security policies and QoS frameworks, its onboarding can be done alongside existing wireless and IT infrastructure, without interrupting business operations.

If you’re building your mobile private network for the future, Celona can help. Check out our private cellular wireless network planner to estimate the size of your Celona network indoors and outdoors, or test-drive a Celona 5G LAN solution.