Getting Ready for 5G in the Enterprise

Status Quo

As we bring cloud software to cellular wireless, our approach to innovation have been influenced by outstanding challenges within the use of wireless infrastructures in the enterprise - independent of the wireless technology or the frequency band under use. Many challenges listed below have been accepted as status quo due to lack of engineering innovation, and we believe that a new approach to enterprise wireless will have to take an aim at tackling many or all of these challenges.

Status Quo in Wireless Networks in the Enterprise

• Dedicated radio technologies (e.g. VHF/UHF) that are used for a single use case, with limited visibility and central management, offering no software programmability, lacking analytics on usage and quality, and that are hard to adapt to evolving use case needs.
• Wi-Fi networks that are force fitted beyond their capabilities in challenging RF environments, and that are highly congested in almost all environments, and that are not designed to guarantee SLA metrics.
• Cellular wireless connectivity that’s used to extend the mobile operator network and is not enterprise controlled. This approach comes with data privacy concerns and lack of visibility to analytics by enterprise IT. Short- to mid-term innovation is dependent on the speed of delivery by the operator, and due to per device data contracts, use of cellular wireless used to mean prohibitively high TCO.

Status Quo in Wireless Network Operations in the Enterprise

• Today, enterprise IT teams are being forced to have two separate internal implementation cycles for Wi-Fi and cellular based communications. Deploying private cellular wireless in the enterprise means long planning cycles for design, having to work with several different technology vendors and a long list of equipment to purchase – costing businesses unnecessary upfront cost and ongoing complexity.
• Wireless infrastructure (cellular or Wi-Fi) are assigned static configurations that are usually set in stone. Embedded OS on the onsite hardware does not adapt to evolving application requirements at the edge, in real-time. There is no closed loop mechanism that learns app characteristics and reacts to the changes in its behavior.
• Ongoing operations are also limited by the network architecture of choice and unaware of benefits of edge compute – they do not offer the benefit of cloud software when on-prem, and they are not truly private when in the cloud.

Status Quo in App Delivery over Enterprise Wireless Networks

• It’s 2019 and yet networking technology is still engineered without developers in mind – without any options to adapt to their real-time instructions or the ability to share real-time status of the network edge. App teams have always been asked to "try and see" when they integrate with the network infrastructure – and are never given a change to demand a specific set of SLA metric when on wireless.
• As a result, almost all of the channel partners prefer simple network management as a service to avoid the risk – preventing new consumption models for an end-to-end solution that not only includes the infrastructure but also business critical applications that drive digital transformation across industries.
• Due to this ‘meet at the customer’ model of delivering apps, enterprise IT teams have to take charge: extend the deployment cycles far beyond the ideal few weeks, build custom systems to support and maintain, and create internal processes to scale the end-to-end solution across many sites and employees.

‍

How does Celona tackle the challenge?

Celona is where 5G meets enterprise IT networks, making always-on wireless connectivity possible with its AI-powered cloud software architecture. It is the first wireless networking company to make LTE/5G technology principles consumable by enterprise IT. Product components within its end-to-end architecture as a single solution: SIM cards on the connected devices + indoor and outdoor Radio Access Network (RAN) hardware + edge compute services on-site and cloud orchestration for network and subscriber management.

Celona is at its best where AI powered apps demand always-on reliable network connectivity for the smart machines and devices that are on the move or do not support wired connectivity. To serve the needs of such business critical systems, Celona solution offers guaranteed service level agreement (SLA) when allowing for connected devices to take advantage of LTE/5G cellular wireless in the CBRS frequency band. Clean spectrum usage and improved wireless coverage is enabled via coordinated / scheduled access mechanisms that are readily available with cellular wireless and CBRS.  

Celona solution set allows enterprise IT teams to keep business relevant analytics, network access control policies and developer tools for app integration within private boundaries of their organization. For those customers who might be new to this technology area and/or would like to sign-up for a flexible consumption models, Celona solution is designed with managed service provider (MSP) led delivery and support motion in mind.

Celona architecture would be deployed as an overlay to the enterprise wired, Wi-Fi, WAN, networks that are already in place and with close integration. It is powered with cloud software that simplifies deployment and ongoing operations for LTE networks, customizes cellular wireless network slices in real-time to application and service needs. Celona’s radio access network (RAN) is ready for software innovation, deliver coverage and quality that challenging RF environments demand, and open it to direct enterprise IT management.

This architectural approach prepares Celona for 5G wireless implementations in the future as a networking platform, and significantly reduces the complexity in adopting the technology stack for private cellular implementations using CBRS spectrum.

‍

To continue the discussion and learn more about how you can get ready for enterprise 5G, register for our webinar series.  

‍