Winner Spotlight: Niral Networks Wins “Private Network Startup Award” for its private network deployments at GMR’s Energy Plant.
Operational and Safety Drivers Behind GMR’s Private 5G and Edge AI Deployment
The GMR energy plant, spanning over 3 to 4 square kilometers, is a vast industrial facility comprising large indoor buildings and expansive outdoor areas such as coal-handling zones. At the time of project inception, the plant relied on Wi-Fi for internal IT operations, which was limited to indoor coverage. This setup proved inadequate for outdoor environments due to connectivity gaps and inconsistent performance. Public 4G and 5G coverage were also unreliable due to the plant’s location on the outskirts of the city, where mobile operator infrastructure was sparse.
To overcome these challenges, GMR sought a secure, industrial-grade communications network that could support its operational requirements with high reliability, mobility, and real-time performance. A key requirement was that the network must be air-gapped—completely isolated from public telecom networks to prevent any exposure to external threats. Given the increasing frequency of cybersecurity incidents in the energy sector, this level of isolation was critical. The network also needed to be “mission-proof,” able to operate in harsh environments with zero tolerance for downtime or data breaches.
GMR’s target use cases demanded a high-performance communications layer. These included plant automation, worker safety systems, drone-based video surveillance, and fleet management. Applications like drone surveys and AI-powered inspections generated large volumes of video data, requiring high uplink throughput and low-latency processing. Traditional Wi-Fi could not deliver the coverage or capacity needed across the sprawling outdoor campus. Public cellular services suffered from latency spikes, bandwidth fluctuations, electromagnetic interference (EMI), and poor uplink performance under load, making them unfit for critical industrial applications.
After a rigorous evaluation process, GMR concluded that a private 5G network combined with an on-premise edge compute platform was the only architecture capable of meeting all their operational, safety, and data privacy requirements.
Niral Networks was selected for its ability to provide a fully integrated, software-defined solution that included a standalone 5G core, edge AI platform, and centralized network control, all tailored for industrial use. The solution offered high uplink capacity, wide-area outdoor mobility, low-latency processing, and secure local compute—key capabilities needed to support automation, surveillance, and safety use cases across the energy plant.
Building the NiralOS Stack: A Private 5G Core Integrated with Edge AI and IMS
At the core of the deployment was the NiralOS 5G standalone (SA) core, compliant with 3GPP Release 16 standards. This was paired with an IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) stack to support local voice and video communications, enabling secure communications within the plant without relying on public carrier infrastructure. To support local processing of AI and automation workloads, the NiralOS stack also included a virtualization layer called HCompute, which enabled the creation of a private on-prem cloud. This cloud hosted various operational applications such as drone management platforms, video analytics systems, and AI-based safety monitoring.
The on-premise compute environment was designed to support GPU slicing and monitoring, a critical feature for running video-intensive AI workloads. This ensured real-time responsiveness for video surveillance, incident detection, and analytics across thousands of connected devices.
To simplify network operations, GMR used the NiralOS Controller, a software-defined orchestration platform that offered unified visibility and control over the private 5G network and the edge cloud infrastructure. This central controller allowed IT teams to monitor network health, provision devices, and deploy new services from a single dashboard, reducing operational complexity.
Deployment of n78 Outdoor Radios and Wireless Backhaul via LiFi
The network’s radio layer was built using n78-band outdoor gNodeBs, specifically 4T4R, 4x5W units designed to deliver strong coverage and capacity across large industrial campuses. These radios supported seamless mobility across the plant, ensuring that drones, cameras, worker safety devices, and IoT sensors remained connected while moving throughout the site.
One of GMR’s core infrastructure requirements was “zero-fiber” backhaul—no trenching, no laying of physical cables. To meet this, Niral Networks implemented a LiFi (light fidelity) backhaul solution in partnership with Velmenni. LiFi, which uses light-based wireless optical technology, provided a robust alternative to fiber, immune to EMI and RF interference, common in industrial zones with heavy machinery and electrical equipment.
LiFi links between radios and the central data center achieved consistent throughputs close to 1 Gbps over distances of 700 meters to 1 kilometer. Unlike microwave links that require a perfect line of sight, LiFi worked effectively with near line-of-sight, providing greater flexibility during installation. The team emphasized the importance of alignment stability, especially in environments with vibration, dust, or moving equipment. Mounting brackets had to be reinforced, and periodic site surveys ensured reliable performance.
This zero-wire architecture allowed for a faster and less invasive rollout, avoided disruptions to ongoing operations, and significantly reduced the complexity of physical infrastructure.
End-to-End Network Slicing and QoS for Industrial Use Cases
Supporting diverse applications required intelligent traffic separation, prioritization, and quality assurance. Niral Networks enabled end-to-end network slicing and QoS management across the RAN, core, and backhaul, allowing each use case to operate within its own performance-optimized slice.
For MCPTT (Mission-Critical Push-to-Talk), a guaranteed bitrate (GBR) slice was configured to ensure high-quality voice and video streaming over a broadcast-style communication channel. This application was particularly useful for worker communication and safety alerts in real time.
For drone surveillance and fixed cameras, Niral Networks created uplink-heavy slices that prioritized video streams. These applications generate large volumes of upstream traffic, and the slices were tuned for throughput and low latency to support real-time monitoring and incident detection.
IoT devices and control signals—such as temperature sensors or actuator controls—had low bandwidth needs. For these, a separate low-data-rate slice was configured, allowing them to function efficiently without occupying unnecessary resources.
Each slice was configured end-to-end, with alignment across the radio network, 5G core, and LiFi backhaul. The NiralOS platform supported dynamic QoS and traffic isolation to ensure that high-priority applications were not impacted by congestion or contention.
With all data processed locally on the private cloud, the system achieved latency under 10 milliseconds, supporting mission-critical workloads such as drone navigation, AI analytics, and plant safety functions.
Scaling Beyond One Facility: A Unified Private 5G Network for Multiple Plants
GMR operates multiple energy plants and is already planning to scale this architecture across six to seven additional sites. Niral Networks’ architecture enables centralized management of multi-site deployments using the NiralOS Controller. This centralized controller can be hosted at GMR’s headquarters and used to provision, monitor, and manage all private 5G networks across different plants.
A key requirement for scalability was SIM portability. Since workers frequently move between sites, GMR wanted SIMs to be provisioned once and work seamlessly at all locations. The controller enables centralized SIM provisioning and identity management, making this process efficient and scalable.
The architecture also supports distributed user plane functions (UPF) at each plant. This means that while the control plane remains centralized, low-latency traffic can be processed locally at each site. This hybrid model ensures optimal performance while keeping management simple.
The system remains vendor-agnostic, allowing GMR to integrate different radio equipment across various sites without changing the core architecture. This flexibility is important for future upgrades, adding new plants, or integrating site-specific customizations.
Niral Networks’ Global Expansion Plans in Energy, Mining, and Agriculture
With over 60 sites already deployed across India, Niral Networks is preparing for global expansion. The company is actively exploring opportunities in countries like the United States and Australia, particularly in sectors such as energy, mining, and agriculture.
In the U.S., the combination of private 5G spectrum availability and interest in digital transformation across rural energy and AgTech operations has opened up new markets. In Australia, the focus is on large-scale mining operations where rugged, EMI-resistant, fiber-free connectivity is in high demand.
Niral Networks is working with local system integration partners in these regions to tailor its offerings for each sector. These partners provide deployment expertise, while Niral acts as the OEM for the private 5G and edge AI solution.
The company’s Open RAN readiness, with over 20 integrated radio partners covering bands like n78, n77, n28, and n41, enables it to adapt to diverse regulatory environments and spectrum allocations across countries.
To support global scalability, Niral is continuously enhancing its platform with features such as AI-driven automation, vertical-specific application integrations, advanced security layers, and simplified device onboarding. Partnerships with vendors in MEC, LiFi, and cloud ecosystems are also being strengthened to offer turnkey deployment solutions abroad.
Conclusion
GMR’s deployment of private 5G and Edge AI with Niral Networks represents a clear example of how industrial operations can benefit from secure, scalable, and software-defined connectivity. The solution addressed challenges around safety, surveillance, real-time responsiveness, and infrastructure constraints—all while being completely air-gapped and optimized for energy-sector needs.
With plans to scale this model across multiple facilities in India and globally, Niral Networks is poised to play a key role in enabling mission-critical private 5G deployments in energy, mining, agriculture, and other high-impact industrial sectors.
