400+ bots, 14 levels, one private 5G network — and 90% less downtime

A fully automated distribution center runs on bots - 400+ of them, moving at 30 mph and faster inside tall, caged aisles that climb 14 levels across roughly 600,000 square feet (about ten football fields). When the bots move, they pick and distribute; when they lose the network, they stop. Keeping every bot continuously connected, everywhere, at speed, is the whole game.

Why Wi-Fi couldn't keep up

The operation's Wi-Fi couldn't roam fast enough for bots traveling at 30 mph through steel-caged, multi-level racking. 

Handoffs between access points dropped connections, and a disconnected bot halts - stalling picking and distribution. Covering the space with Wi-Fi also meant hundreds of  APs to blanket the 600K sq-ft, 14-level structure, with all the cabling and tuning that implies - and it still left the roaming problem unsolved.

One private 5G layer, 28 APs

Celona deployed private 5G across the entire facility - all 600,000 sq ft and all 14 levels - with just 28 access points, ~10% Wi-Fi APs it would have taken. Private cellular's higher transmit power and link budget reach deep into the caged, multi-level racking, and its native, network-controlled handover keeps fast-moving bots connected as they cross cell boundaries at speed. Each bot connects through an onboard cellular gateway, so the fleet rides one deterministic network instead of contending with best-effort Wi-Fi.

The outcome

The result is pervasive coverage with no dead zones across every level, and the handoff and disconnect issues are gone. The network handles on the order of 61,000 handovers a day, all seamless, so bots keep moving. 

Predictable, always-connected mobility cut downtime by 90%. In a fully automated DC the stakes are high - bot downtime can run on the order of $50,000 a day (approximate industry estimate, not customer-reported) - so cutting it by 90% protects real throughput and revenue. And because of fewer APs, rollouts are far faster and simpler - up to a 10× reduction in the access points needed to cover the warehouse, with correspondingly less cabling and maintenance.