In an attempt to expand its stronghold as a company of telecommunications, offering wireless services and products, a globally acclaimed American company, Verizon Wireless, is conducting lab trials with Corning and Samsung to provide 5G mmWave.
This will be feasible in institutions such as hospitals, manufacturing facilities, warehouses, schools, ports, retail stores and more. But the perk of it lies in the fact that this will bring along private networks via Mobile Edge Compute (MEC) making things faster and more engaging.
Speaking about the significance of these indoor cell sites, Senior Vice President of Technology Planning and Development at Verizon Adam Koeppe has commented:
An indoor cell site brings the benefits of mmWave 5G – high throughput, great capacity, high reliability and the ability for a large number of users to simultaneously use robust data applications – indoors where it may be more difficult for signals from our outside 5G network to penetrate. – Adam Koeppe
Significance of 5G Network
Popularly known as the fifth-generation technology standard for cellular networks’, it enables higher quality of performance, higher multi-Gbps peak data speeds, ultra-low latency, more reliability, massive network capacity, increased availability, and more uniform user experience to more users. In fact, it relies on three basic components, mainly:
- private core serving exclusively that single system,
- a radio access network (an indoor cell site like the ones being tested with Corning and Samsung), and
- a MEC platform.
Speaking on its significance Koeppe says,
By combining a private core, an indoor cell site and the MEC platform in a facility, an enterprise can have a private and secure ultra-reliable, high-speed, low-latency 5G network….A private 5G network will offer customers the potential to have the cloud within their facility. It will accelerate enterprise automation and digitization efforts, and with Verizon’s mmWave bandwidth and reliability, it will offer the scalability to manage massive numbers of devices along with advanced capabilities such as Edge AI, computer vision and other emerging technologies.
Simply put, these three elements serve as a tool to eliminate ‘the need to share core resources with the macro network and offers the flexibility to develop specific capabilities customized to the private network owner.’ This enhances the speed and performance without taking the trouble of crossing multiple routers or a larger geographical area.
Impact of Collaboration for the indoor Cell-sites
Corning is done with its test lab which took place in Westlake, TX and started with field testing while Samsung is still at its preliminary stage. As it goes, Corning’s mmWave solution comes in an indoor site with a sleek, easy-to-install design, delivering future-ready 5G performance, speaking of which Corning writes:
We’re pleased to open a new phase in our longtime collaboration with Verizon, which over the years has brought reliable LTE coverage to Verizon’s customers in venues large and small,…Now, with Corning’s mmWave solution, Verizon will showcase its 5G Ultra Wideband capabilities for the enterprise. Our mmWave solution draws on Corning’s decades of experience in network design to deliver cost-effective indoor coverage that allows enterprises to reap the full benefits of 5G.
On the other hand, Samsung’s cell-in building products seem to produce solutions in a more compact and discrete form ‘delivering the high-throughout and lower-latency service levels.’ Magnus Ojert, Vice President, Networks Division, Samsung Electronics America comments on its collaboration:
Building on our network collaboration with Verizon since 2009 and our global leadership in mmWave technology, we are excited to expand 5G’s next phase to the enterprise with Verizon,….These first trials of indoor small cell solutions, coupled with our recent advancements with vRAN, advance our support of Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network and will provide their U.S. consumers and enterprises with incredible new experiences.
For now, the testing is on the way and awaits final field testing. However, Verizon presumably will start deploying the commercial in-building product by the end of 2020.
