Private 5G network for a temporary distribution warehouse with AerFlex and Starlink

Distribution for consumer paper products — bath tissue, paper towels, napkins, plates — is highly seasonal. To absorb a demand surge, a global paper and pulp manufacturer needed a temporary regional distribution point, fast. Rather than sign a multi-year lease on a dedicated building, it leased three to four aisles inside a 1–1.5 million-square-foot third-party logistics (3PL) warehouse for a one-to-two-year term. That slice still had to run like an owned DC — barcode scanning, mobile label printing, work-order management, real-time inventory against the WMS — but the tenant couldn't modify a building it didn't own, and the 3PL's shared Wi-Fi couldn't guarantee performance for one tenant's few aisles.

Why the usual options don't fit

Wiring a temporary slice of someone else's building runs into constraints that rule out conventional approaches. There's no right to trench cable, mount APs on the host's infrastructure, or install racks. The 3PL's Wi-Fi — and every other tenant's independent Wi-Fi — creates an uncoordinated, best-effort RF environment with interference and dead zones. A one-to-two-year term can't justify fixed capital in cabling and switches that can't be recovered when the lease ends. There's no on-site IT to stand up a controller-based network, and no claim on the building's internet circuit.

One private-5G layer on a cart

Celona deployed AerFlex — its AP-only, cloud-controlled private 5G architecture — on a Cell-on-Wheels (CoW) built around the Celona AP24, with Starlink as WAN backhaul. AerFlex needs no on-site controller, core rack, or server: each AP is a 5G radio with local data breakout that plugs into enterprise firewall and NAC policies, while the cloud Celona Orchestrator handles provisioning, policy, QoS, and CBRS spectrum coordination. The whole on-site footprint is the AP, powered up — nothing that modifies the building. The AP24, a small PoE switch, and a Starlink terminal ride a mobile cart that rolls into the leased aisles and is online within minutes, then rolls out and redeploys when the lease ends.

Independent, coordinated, and scoped to the lease

Because only control-plane and cloud-management traffic needs backhaul — operational data (scans, print jobs, WMS transactions) breaks out on-site — a modest Starlink link is enough, fully decoupled from the 3PL's network, IT policies, and ISP contract. The AP24 runs on coordinated CBRS (arbitrated via SAS), so the manufacturer's network sees no co-channel interference from neighboring tenants' Wi-Fi. And because the RF footprint is planned for the leased three-to-four aisles rather than the whole facility, the manufacturer pays only for the coverage it needs — with the higher transmit power and lower noise floor of private cellular giving more reliable indoor coverage per AP than Wi-Fi. 

The AP24's sectorized antennas even reach a small remote office at the far end of the building — a label printer and WMS terminal — from the same cart, avoiding extra hardware.

Why private 5G won on the merits

Beyond the install and lease-term constraints, private 5G won for durable reasons: fewer, higher-power sectorized radios replace several Wi-Fi APs and their cabling (lower CapEx and OpEx); coordinated CBRS avoids the multi-tenant interference Wi-Fi can't escape; MicroSlicing holds deterministic QoS for scanning, printing, and WMS; and cellular's native mobility keeps moving scanners connected today and opens a path to AMRs and AGVs tomorrow without a redesign. When the lease is up, the entire Cell-on-Wheels relocates to the next site — no stranded capital.

Deployment Images

Wi-Fi vs public cellular vs private 5G