Private 5G/LTE Networks: Reliable and Scalable Strategies for Successful Deployment

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Meet the Webinar Speakers and Host

Head of Product at GXC

Hitesh Solanki serves as head of product at GXC, where he is responsible for setting and executing product strategies for GXCโ€™s private cellular networks solutions.

Solanki has over 20 years of experience productizing new ideas, scaling global teams, and building strong inter-business partnerships. Prior to joining the company, he was the head of strategic partner engagements for Google's CBRS group, and served in executive leadership roles at Apstra, Ruckus Networks, and SpiderCloud Wireless. He was also chief executive officer and founder of Equanimus Consulting.

Solanki is a graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington and is pursuing an MBA degree at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. He resides in San Francisco.

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Chief Revenue Officer at Dejero

Kevin Fernandes joined Dejero in 2017 and leads the global sales team as Chief Revenue Officer. He brings 15 years of experience working with audio and video customers to develop and support equipment for broadcast, medical, and industrial markets. Prior to Dejero, Kevin held various senior level B2B sales roles with a focus on connecting clients with the right solutions to fulfil their business needs. Kevin holds a Bachelorโ€™s in Computer Engineering and a Masters of Applied Science in Electrical Engineering from McMaster University, located in Hamilton, Ontario.

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Sales Director at Intel

Manav Bhalla is a Sales Director at Intel with a focus on Private Networks. Manav works closely with Intel partners including TEMs, Hyperscalers, System Integrators, Enterprises, CSPs, as well as ISVs in accelerating private network deployments. Manav takes on a customer centric role and aims to help enterprises of all sizes realize the benefits of Private Networks across industries and verticals. He has over 20 yearsโ€™ industry experience, spanning North America, Asia, Oceania, Middle East and Africa - leading sales, management consulting and engineering engagements. He holds a Bachelorโ€™s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Curtin University of Technology, as well as a Masterโ€™s degree in Business Analytics from University of Texas, Dallas.

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Federal 5G Alliance Manager at Dell Technologies

Gregory Burrill is the 5G and Networking Alliance Manager for Dell Federal, where he manages an ecosystem of technology partners that provides innovative solutions for mission critical connectivity and supports account teams by leveraging the appropriate technology to address customers requirements. Prior to working at Dell Technologies, Greg served 20 years on active duty in the U.S. Army, and 6 years as a civilian employee of the Federal Government, where he focused on supporting connectivity and mission requirements for the SOF and Intelligence communities.

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Hema Kadia, CEO and Founder at TeckNexus

Hema Kadia is the Founder and CEO of TeckNexus, where she expertly generates and disseminates insights in 5G, private networks, and Open RAN, leveraging over 25 years of experience in telecommunications and technology. At TeckNexus, Hema leads a team dedicated to creating research reports, specialized magazines, whitepapers, and insightful webinars tailored for the evolving tech and telecom industries. Her leadership focuses on establishing TeckNexus as a critical resource and networking hub for industry professionals.

Before founding TeckNexus, Hema played transformative leadership roles at Prodapt and Amdocs, where she spearheaded transformative initiatives in SDN-NFV and strategic alliances, significantly enhancing network technologies and shaping future business strategies. Renowned for her strategic vision, Hema has been instrumental in driving digital transformation and advancing next-generation network innovations.

Hema holds master's degrees in Computer Applications and Engineering & Technology from M.S. University, India. Her educational background and professional trajectory highlight her deep understanding of both the technical and visionary dimensions of the tech industry. Hema's leadership is marked by a relentless commitment to excellence and a profound passion for empowering industry professionals with innovative solutions and actionable knowledge.

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Webinar Insights and Comprehensive Transcript

Private 5G/LTE Networks Webinar | Introduction and Overview

The webinar focused on the pivotal role of private 5G/LTE networks in enhancing enterprise connectivity. Led by moderator Hema Kadia, the panel featured insights from industry leaders at GXC, Intel, Dell Technologies, and Dejero. They discussed the current landscape, future expectations, and key strategic considerations for deploying private networks.

Private 5G/LTE Network Industry Insights

  • Hitesh Solanki from GXC highlighted challenges and solutions in enterprise networking, emphasizing the importance of reliable and secure connectivity. He introduced Onyx, GXC’s flagship private network solution, detailing its operational savings and strategic benefits in enterprise applications.
  • Manav Bhalla from Intel elaborated on Intel’s role beyond chip manufacturing, discussing the integration of ecosystems and technologies for private 5G/LTE network solutions. He stressed the importance of flexible, scalable solutions that adapt to various enterprise needs.
  • Greg Burrill from Dell Technologies focused on the infrastructure and integration aspects, discussing how Dell supports private 5G/LTE networks through robust ecosystems and advanced server technologies.
  • Jehan Karim from Dejero concluded the panel by exploring the role of multi-transport connectivity in private networks, underscoring the need for seamless integration across different technological platforms and environments.

Download Webinar Slides and View Poll Results

Several polls were conducted throughout the webinar to gauge participant views on private 5G/LTE network adoption challenges, strategic priorities, and future deployment plans. Attendees are encouraged to download the complete webinar presentation to access detailed results of these interactive polls, gain further insights into audience perceptions, and receive expert recommendations.

The panelists underscored the collaborative effort required to advance private network technologies and the critical role of tailored solutions in meeting diverse enterprise needs.ย 

Private 5G/LTE Networks Webinar Transcriptย 

To fully explore the topics discussed, watch the webinar and read the detailed transcript provided below.

The Role of Private 5G/LTE Networks in Enterprise Multi-Connectivity | Opening Remarks by Hema Kadia

Hello and Welcome, everybody. Thank you for joining us in today’s webinar on Private Networks: Reliable and Scalable Connectivity Strategies. We would like to thank all our sponsors and partners, GXC, Intel, Dell Technologies, and Dejero.

Joining us today are:

  • Hitesh Solanki, Head of Product Management at GXC
  • Manav Bhalla, Sales Director at Intel
  • Greg Burrill, Federal Alliance Manager at Dell Technologies
  • Jehan Karim, Global Director for Business Development at Dejero

Unfortunately, Kevin Fernandes could not join, so we are thankful that Jehan joined us today. I’m Hema Kadia, and I will be the moderator and host for today’s webinar.

Before continuing, I would like to highlight two points: We will conduct a poll throughout this webinar and have at least 10 to 15 minutes for a Q&A session at the end.

Current State of Private 5G/LTE Networks

Let’s start with the current state of private networks:

Deciding on Private 5G/LTE in Multi-Connectivity Enterprises: Key Considerations

Key considerations for deploying private networks in enterprise environments:

  1. Reliability: Address connectivity challenges to ensure continuous service.
  2. Flexibility: Adapt to dynamic changes in the environment.
  3. Scalability: Address any scalability issues in your infrastructure.
  4. Performance: Identify your critical business applications’ bandwidth, latency, and performance requirements to determine if private 5G and LTE are suitable solutions.
  5. Security: Consider your private 5G and LTE network and the connectivity technologies you have already deployed, the IoT devices, and their visibility and monitoring.
  6. Cost Effectiveness: Prioritize initiatives with the highest return on investment and maximum operational benefits.
  7. Resilience: Consider adding redundant connectivity technology layers to ensure continuity of service.
  8. Sustainability: Ensure that the equipment and solutions are energy efficient.

We welcome our first panelist, Hitesh Solanki. Hitesh, Please take away.ย 

Advanced Private 5G/LTE Network Solutions at GXC | Hitesh Solanki, Head of Product Management at GXC (Panelist)

Thank you. Good morning, everybody, good evening, and good afternoon, depending on what part of the world you’re joining us from. We truly appreciate the few moments you will spare with us, and Hema, thank you once again for setting us up with this amazing panel. We’ve got some really interesting conversations lined up ahead.

Enterprise Network Challenges

I would like to begin with the challenges for Enterprise networks. I read something the other day, and it resonated with me: when we talk about running a business, we have all kinds of challenges and all kinds of issues, but the one key thing that really makes a difference, usually between success and failure, is time. It’s a quantity, a resource that is not in our control. We cannot bring back time lost, and we cannot accelerate time to move faster through rough times to get to success. But what we can do is control our actions, how our business is supported, and how we are supporting our business.

Some of the other networking challenges that were shown on the slide are really coverage-related. It’s like peeling the onionโ€”if you start with time as a big, nebulous entity that we cannot control, but then look into the other subtle problems and start drilling down, asking the question “why” five times, we typically find that it boils down to a flavor of one of these six things that I’ve mentioned over here, especially coming from an Enterprise perspective. When you’re trying to run a business, there are inputs that you need to put into the business; there are outcomes and outputs that you need to make sure are favorable and help you achieve your goals.

Wireless connectivity is becoming that ubiquitous platform, a base or core business need. During the pandemic, every business became an online business. Post-pandemic, this is like the new mantra where everybody is talking about AI and trying to solve tough problems with machine learning and artificial intelligence. You still miss the very core, sharp edges of what your network can do, what your business can do, and why it cannot run faster. It kind of boils down to one of these challenges: you have coverage issues, you have data losses, you could have any kind of operational inefficiencies that surface up that you could say, “If I only had a reliable, secure network, I could actually think about doing this slightly differently.”

GXC Private 5G/LTE Case Study: Manufacturing Campus Slashes Opex by $6.5M

And so, what I want to share here on this one is a specific example: instead of arm-waving around,d there is a problem,m and there is a nebulous problem. I want to talk about a use case and a business case that we kind of stepped in as a partner, as a solution provider to one of our customers, and showed them the tangible dollar figure they could be taking and rolling it up into their profits. We helped them save on operational expenses, $65 million year-over-year. As this SL lays it out, there was a specific business problem; it was a large enterprise, and a massive amount of outdoor and indoor coverage capacity was required. We didn’t really have anything in our homes, in our privileged life where we have Wi-Fi that works like a fourth utilityโ€”you switch on a button, and it’s always there. You don’t even have to switch on a button; it’s usually just always there. It is not the same situation when you go into the country’s rural areas; sometimes, when you travel far out, you experience that. Imagine running a business in a deprived environment like that; that’s basically this customer, they needed the connectivity to use their scanners.ย 

They had invested in new gadgets; scanners and tablets became reasonably inexpensive, making it easier to acquire them. But only to realize that Wi-Fi, which they thought was well-incorporated or covered areas in residential areas and offices with good infrastructure, does nothing outdoors. Once you go outdoors because the physics just doesn’t allow it. Our solution involved a handful of access points, compared to Wi-Fi access points, that spoke cellular communication languages. We masked it all from them; all they really needed to know was that we would come in at one-fourth or one-fifth the number of actual hardware access points that would be installed, and they would pay about $200,000 for three-year ownership of that network.ย 

Every single device they bought and all of the use cases they had in mind, which were actually going to generate business outcomes for them, resulted in manual labor savings, leading to all kinds of efficiency and optimization exercises. They were able to shift into that domain gradually, and they gave us, we worked with them to figure out what was that in terms of savings, and the number right there is $6.5 million, a substantial number carried out based on certain labor charges and certain other expenses that were shared with us.

Introducing GXC OYNX for Private Networks

So, how did we do that? Well, we used our hero product called Onyx. Onyx is our brand name for a private cellular network solution, as I’m showing here. We bring in an end-to-end solution; we come in as consultants to our customer’s problems, understand what they’re trying to achieve, and see if it’s a good fit for what we have as a product offering. We have a fewโ€” we’ll get into the details of that, but the core highlights that we bring to the table are that you come to us, and we are your one-stop shop. You don’t have to shuffle around trying to fix things, put things together, and create your own solution. We did that; we engineered it in-house so that you, as a customer, do not have to do that. It’s a complete software that brings your solution to your environment with wireless coverage from day zero, day one, and day two perspectives.

What I mean by that is initial design consultation, what you’re going to need, how we are going to place it, what the before and after going to look like, the design phase of it, the day one, which is the actual configuration where we actually put the solution in place and light it up for you with our professional installers on-site, and day two is to teach you or show you how do you get the most out of the network that you’ve deployed. Day two management includes KPI and analytics; it includes all kinds of changes in configuration and additions if you want to expand the network and get into other areas.

And lastly, we have a hero product that doesn’t really show up anywhere else in any conversations other than our discussions with our customers, which is the industry’s first cellular mesh node. Industry when I say industry-first, it’s not that we’ve been using mesh technology in wireless technology or Wi-Fi technology, but the adoption of that same principle or that same idea that you can actually put up a cell tower without dragging a cable to it, even the power cable, mind you, is the industry first. Our CTO and co-founder, Hardik Jain, has patents around that, he and his team worked really hard in the initial days of our company to build this valuable asset that we have in our back pocket, and there have been so many conversations that open up just because we can actually promise them that you can now have cellular private cellular coverage in areas and locations that you couldn’t even think about putting any cables because they were cost prohibitive because there were standards, safety standards, etc., that you couldn’t use to deploy the cellular coverage there.

GXC OYNX: All-Inclusive Solution for Private 5G/LTE Networks

And so, an all-inclusive pictorial viewโ€”a picture speaks a thousand words, so I could keep going on and on about what we include, but this gives you a lay of the land. We’ve got access points: the first three are the actual outdoor and indoor access points; the last one towards the black computer platform is actually the mesh node. They, in terms of form factor, are very similar to each other; they look very similar, and performance-wise, they are also very similar. It’s the intellectual property that I mentioned earlier, in the middle, is our compute platform. It comes in a few variations, and the one that I’m showing here is the one that goes into a portable box. On the right-hand side is the actual management system, along with a SIM card and a subscription for Spectrum services. And underneath that, as you can see, all of these industrial use cases, as well as other technologies, can actually be partners to a private cellular network, and I’m going to show another slide that will talk about us as a platform as an enabler because we facilitate all kinds of connectivity solutions to germinate from the solution that is called the private cellular network because it’s the basis for everything that you want to do as a business moving upwards.

GXC Industry First: Cellular Mesh Technology

So, just very quickly double-clicking again on the mesh technology, I know it was a lot to digest in the previous slide, but this is where I zoom into it, and I want to show you exactly what the lay of the land looks like, right? It’s got the compute platform, there’s an outdoor access point that’s connected with a wired node or with a wired cable to the computer platform, and then you have a cellular signal coming out of that access point, which is a 4G or 5G signal, what have you, that feeds in wirelessly as an input to the actual mesh node over here. The mesh node can then do its magic, clean up the signal, and make it stronger, better, and faster for the devices that will be connected to that end to that particular access point connected to the mesh. Doing this gives you about a mile and a half to two miles for one mesh node between the end-user device and the actual compute platform. You can daisy chain this and have another mesh node at the far end of it, which would let you double the distance wirelessly again. This thing can power up using a battery and a solar panel out in the middle of the field, out in the middle of places where you cannot drag cables, and that is our unique value proposition.

GXC Value PYRAMID

ย The value Pyramid is the one that I was talking about earlier. I will go a minute over my time, but I think it’s important to talk about this. We see ourselves as a base level at which we come in and talk about our products and talk about our solutions as something that our customers can use to facilitate everything that goes on top of it, and our customers really see the value in the top green pyramid where they actually can think of doing the applications and the digital transformation that they’ve been talking about since a number of years. We’ve actually met customers who invested heavily in those software licenses only to realize that what they thought would be a solution for all of their issues and problems just don’t do anything because there is no wireless coverage that can let them run with it. Imagining spending thousands of dollars on a license fee for software that sits on a tablet, but you would have to physically walk back and forth from your actual field work where it is needed to the carpeted area where there is Wi-Fi just so that you can upload the data once you’re done with it. So we’ve partnered with our partners who are going to be talking about their stuff pretty soon here, but these are just a subset of our partners, right? We have ecosystem partners that work with us for network devices, we have ecosystem partners that work with us for actual applications, there are additional features and enhancements that are constantly being developed, and we have partners to help us do that. The net out of it is that we come in at the base level to take care of the hard stuff with our proprietary hardware and software and facilitate conversations that bring up the highest value of installing a particular network for our customers.

GXC Partner First GTM

And this is exactly what I was talking about earlier. We know that this is not a zero-sum game. Private networks had a great start, but then it kind of slowed down on the adoption side of things. There are various entities around the globe talking about it, and things are opening up even more. Just yesterday, I was on a webinar that’s still in the hush-hush, but there are some massively amazing changes coming on the positive side for what the US and the CBRS can actually, you know, coverage-wise and capacity-wise mean for our partners as well as customers. So we really build strong bonds with our partners. Go-to-market partners are folks who think like us, have the same understanding of the problem space, and want to bring a holistic solution to our customers. We focus predominantly on Industry 4.0. The reason for that is we think Wi-Fi is great when it works and when it’s available. We don’t want to go up against that, but we want to find out niche opportunities that Wi-Fi struggles and, you know, the external entities or the big networks that are available out there are not customized enough or flexible enough to address the business needs. Why should the business suffer? Our partners and we feel that we can actually come together and help our customers so that they can really leverage all of the technological advancements that have happened in the United States over the past five years.

Private 5G/LTE Networks First Poll Question from GXC | Interactive Polling Sessionย 

Let me launch the poll that I was supposed to share earlier. We would have approximately 60 seconds for this poll. Appreciate your input, participants.

Whatโ€™s blocking your adoption of private cellular networks for business-critical use?

  • Awareness of how it works – seems complicated!
  • Budget constraints – too expensive!
  • Prior poor experience – Weโ€™ve tried it, and it didnโ€™t work!
  • Other – itโ€™s something else, letโ€™s talk!

ย Let me transfer the control to Manav. Manav, please take it away.

Intel’s Innovations in Private 5G/LTE Networks | Manav, Sales Director at Intel (Panelist)ย 

Hi, thank you, Hema. Hello everyone. I want to talk about Intel’s role in private 5G.

Intel in Private 5G โ€“ Beyond the โ€˜chipsโ€™

It’s important to first look at how the network landscape has evolved to answer that question adequately. Historically, operators would deploy large nationwide networks, and these were the ones driving the use cases, which were primarily consumer-focused and comprised of phones and tablets. Now, in the case of private networks, this is not true. The impetus for driving private networks is the enterprise’s need to solve a business problem; from that, they identify which use case could solve that problem. Ultimately, the solution can be serviced by connectivity, often P5G. We saw Hesh showed in one of his slides that a head net type scenario is possible where you may have a complement of LoRa but also 4G or 5G. So, what we see is that connectivity is just an enabler in P5G networks. Another critical component is the ecosystem.

Now again, Hitesh mentioned that to solve a business problem adequately with the right use cases, you need to complement the connectivity with things such as edge applications and endpoint devices. Now, Intel has a very rich partner ecosystem. We work closely with the three companies here but have an extensive partner ecosystem. This ecosystem also leads us to have a very extensive list of vertical-specific use cases and edge applications, and in turn, all of this feeds into our market-ready solution and ready kits, and we have various programs that allow our partners to showcase solutions, things such as Intel Network Builders.

So, this rich ecosystem has allowed us to have over 30,000 unique deployments since 2018. Below, I represent the block diagram of what I see as the large components of private networks, and really, the point I want to make is that Intel plays across that. People often have this perception that Intel is a chip provider, but that’s certainly not true, even in the case of GXE. They’re a partner of ours; they use our FlexRAN software, and they use our chips, whether Xeons or network controllers, but the point I want to make is again, in this case, if you see, we work with them on application partners, we work with them on the FlexRAN so really, Intel’s role is much beyond the chips.

What does the Intel Private Networks E2E approach enable?

We saw in the previous slide that Intel works across the ecosystem, but it’s important to consider the benefits for an enterprise or take the other approach if they take an end-to-end approach and work across the ecosystem. What do you get out of that? So, as you would have heard from Hesh and other partners, enterprises want solutions that are easy to deploy and offer flexibility. So, taking an end-to-end approach enables this by offering flexibility regarding technology, business, or commercial models.

Now, what do I mean by that? If you look at a technology perspective, enterprises service different verticals, and they have different sizes, so it’s not a one-size-fits-all. Some may have a legacy Wi-Fi network deployed; others may already have some 4G devices, so you need flexibility, city, and a rigid solution that doesn’t work. Also, spectrum, right, so in the US, we’re lucky enough we have CBRS, but there are other parts of the world that don’t have CBRS, so really, you need to be able to work with operators and then also node placement.,

This, in turn, takes me to the next point, the business model. Again, depending on the size or the needs of an enterprise, they may want 100% on-prem, 100% private network, but then there may be scenarios where a hybrid solution is more appropriate where the RAN is maybe deployed on-site and then the core is in the cloud, or an enterprise may be quite small in size, can’t afford the CAPEX and OPEX but still want to leverage a private network. So, in this scenario, a multi-tenant type solution may be more appropriate.

Having that flexibility really allows unique commercial models to be engaged. So large enterprises may want their CAPEX-heavy heavy solu, so we want to just pay for something outright and then have very minimal OPEX, but then you know other enterprises may prefer an only model, which allows them to save valuable CAPEX. So pay as you go as a service; some may say, we want you to put some skin in the game, so identify an outcome and say when we meet those outcomes, we will pay you, or someone may just want something very simple like hey the number of devices is how we will pay so today we have 100 when we get the next 100 we’ll pay you the next tranche of money. So, the benefit of taking this end-to-end approach is that it allows enterprises to achieve the outcomes and benefits they’re after while simplifying operations.

Why Intel for Private 5G/LTE Networks?

The question becomes, why Intel? So if you look historically, Intel was a big proponent in the shift from legacy networks to open networks, so macro networks, if you go back, I’ve been in the game since 2G days but used to have large, you know legacy appliances that were very purpose-built but now we have a scenario which is you know VNFs and Cloud native networks so we’re taking that same approach to private networks and we’ve identified private networks as a key focus area for Intel and we’re really committed to accelerating the adoption of private networks for our customers and partners so others in the industry may be very opportunistic we’re being very deliberate about it.

I talked about the ecosystem engagement we feel, and again, I think Hitesh also mentioned that private networks are not a product play. It’s an ecosystem play, right there’s no single point that will get you everything that you need, so someone may have a great network but don’t have CPEs and may have the CPEs and the network but may need some application, so by engaging that ecosystem you can get a lot better outcomes, and Intel has the relationships and the size to activate that ecosystem.

Now, also, the portfolio I mentioned earlier goes much beyond the chip, so again, we need that end-to-end approach, and we have the tools and frameworks to really implement an end-to-end solution, so we offer not just FlexRAN. We have processors, we have GPUs, we have FPGAs, we have Edge Solutions, we have ready-to-deploy solutions I mentioned earlier, MRSs and RKS, so we really allow you to accelerate that time to market by working with us now when it comes to our hardware and software we have a very strong connection between hardware and software the teams code-sign and work together and there’s that feedback loop to make sure that what we put out to the market is very robust and is going to work well for our partners.

AI and ML are getting a lot of attention, and rightly so. We have a lot of reference solutions and train AI kits to increase that time to market, reduce that time to market, and increase deployment speeds, so we have a very extensive partner ecosystem. We have ISVs, SI partners, and device manufacturers, so we really enable that full end-to-end solution and then partner programs, so we have various partner programs. We have the Intel Partner Alliance. I mentioned all the MRSs and stuff, but we also provide resources funding BKM to accelerate that innovation because we have that strategic focus on private network deployments.

Intel Recommended Approach for Private 5G/LTE Networks

So invariant, the question becomes, what is our recommended approach? Well, again, you know, to build upon what Hitesh was saying, we think to identify the outcomes now I’ve laid it out in the sense of today, tomorrow, day after tomorrow that’s not a literal sense but really represents okay short-term, mid-term, and sort of long term identify the business problem and let that be you know the anchor that will solve the issue you’re facing. Rethink the role of connectivity to outcomes and really come up with the top use cases that will be addressed by private networks. Then we recommend you engage with your partners that can activate that ecosystem to really map those outcomes to the technology and then use that to come up with the business case of what’s going to be the ROI once your outcomes are achieved again Hitesh mentioned, you know the company that you work with $6 and a half million dollars in Opex savings that’s quite substantial so the business case there would be very compelling if you’re paying in the order of like a couple of hundred thousand for a private network so Intel is the partner of choice because we can leverage not just our extensive portfolio but we can engage that ecosystem to really help an enterprise achieve the desired outcomes enable the use cases and deploy something that’s very very future-proof in terms of innovation.

Private 5G/LTE Networks Second Poll Question from Intel | Interactive Polling Session

Thank you so much, Manav. Let me pull up our next poll question. It’s here, and we appreciate your responses. We’ll hold for approximately 60 seconds.ย 

Are you planning to deploy private 5G within the next 6 to 12 months?

  • Actively preparing for deployment.
  • Planning for deployment in the future.
  • Undecided or no plans to deploy private 5G.

Let me invite Greg Burrill to present Dell Technologies’ perspective.

Enhancing Private 5G/LTE Networks with Dell Technologies | Greg Burrill, 5G Federal Alliance Manager at Dell Technologies (Panelist)

Hema, appreciate it. Thank you all. Good morning, everybody. Greg Bell at Dell Technologies. I actually work on the federal side, but obviously, I have a deep knowledge of what Dell does in the 5G space.

Dell Technologies Role in Private 5G Networks

For most people that are on the webinar, Dell Technologies probably doesn’t come to mind when you think of 5G, but luckily, with the standards changing to more of a virtualized network function and the fact that now with 5G technologies, it’s not locked into proprietary hardware, you can host most 5G workloads on commercial off-the-shelf servers. That’s where Dell’s pretty much involved. We’re on the backend of most of the network infrastructure, and we also partner with many folks across the industry, including everybody on this call, to develop and go to market with validated solutions. That all starts with, obviously, the PowerEdge servers that we normally deploy. We’ve got both data center-centric platforms that can host both the RAN and the core functions and any sort of multi-access edge compute or edge-based use cases, including ruggedized and NEBS-compliant offerings on the rugged side.

So, that’s first and foremost, and then, in addition, we obviously have a very robust ecosystem of technology partners. We are very key to the validation of those partners on Dell hardware and then obviously getting that out into the market space. All of our partners that we work with have a large lab in Round Rock, Texas, and one in Cork, Ireland, which I’ll cover here in a little more detail. But we’re very keen on thatโ€”basically having validated solutions that once a customer is interested in taking on a 5G network, a private 5G network, everything’s going to work together and play nice. We also support open ecosystem solutions, so Dell is a big proponent of open ecosystems. You know, having customers not get locked into proprietary hardware or software solutions. That was really key coming out of COVID because, as most people saw, COVID created significant disruptions in global supply chains. So, if your wagon is hitched to one particular vendor, you could be locked in and kind of out of luck if we run into another global instance where you can’t get your hardware or the software required to run your node.

And then first and foremost, we also focus on customer requirements. Normally, when I get brought into conversations with customers about 5G, they do want the improved metrics and the quality of service that 5G networks bring. But at the end of the day, it’s usually tied to a use case. So, Dell, along with our partners, we’re very keen on helping customers kind of flesh out the use case because normally, that obviously takes into account other tech verticals that maybe the customers aren’t thinking about like, “Hey, you’re pulling in all this data from sensors. Do you need data storage? Do you need an edge-based platform to crunch, you know, do the analysis whether it’s an AI or ML type application?” So, Dell is very strong in that space, just like Intel, where they work with a number of partners. So, we try to tie all that together and basically give a customer a holistic solution. And then really last but definitely not least is how do we simplify the technology solution. So, cellular networks are very complicated, especially at scale. Luckily, private networks are a little easier to grapple with, but you know, at the end of the day, cellular technologies as they currently stand, especially in large-scale networks, you know, you could have a master’s or a PhD in that, and you know if you don’t know what you’re doing, it could take you a decade to get anything to connect to the network. So, luckily with the partners that we have on here, we make it pretty simple and straightforward for deployment and just take a lot of that guesswork and complication out of that at customer hands.

Open Telecom Ecosystem Lab (OTEL), Round Rock, Texas

I talked about the Open Telecom Systems Lab. The largest ones are down in Round Rock, Texas, which is where Dell Technology’s headquarters, the mothership, is. And there’s a couple of different pathways there. So right now, it’s about a 16,000-foot facility; they’re getting ready to expand that out to about another 10,000 square feet. So it’s a dedicated secure facility. All of our partners can come in and do benchmarking testing and validation on Dell hardware. We’ve got all the infrastructure blocks that you see there, whether it’s the ruggedized servers that can be thrown out in a storage container out on the edge, or if it’s going to be hosted in a data center, we’ve got all that that’s there available for our customers to come in and our partners to come in and validate.

We’ve also got RF Faraday cages, so if you’ve got radios or antennas that you want to benchmark and test, we’ve got that available. Well, it is exceeded down in the lower left, those are the couple of different certification paths. So joint certification, that’s where Dell and a partner go hand in hand and come out at the end of that with an actual joint certification. Partners can self-certify, so you can come in and use the infrastructure hardware to certify your own software. So a lot of our independent software vendors do thatโ€”solution validation, hey does this work, which is obviously tied to proof of concept as well, or we can just have partners and customers come in to do some demo or training on actual Telco infrastructure hardware.

Dell 5G Open RAN Solution for Government

Dell’s big on the 5G Open RAN solution, so obviously, GXC plays into that, as well as Intel. And basically, with that Open RAN architecture, it really opens up the ability to plug and play different partners and vendors into the space. It gives you different architectural deployment options; they’re a little more flexible, especially with disaggregated CU and DU. You can obviously reduce the amount of hardware that’s required to deploy on-site with some of these more flexible architectures.

In addition, Dell works with a number of partners to integrate at the chipset accelerator, so whether that’s a separate card or some like the new chipsets that Intel comes out with that are accelerating Telco specific workloads to offload a lot of that heavy kind of layer one compute, we integrate all that in the Dell platforms as well. And you can see at the bottom there, on the FED side, federal customers are definitely interested in private networks, not only from the ability to control access to that network but security as well, and like Hema mentioned at the beginning of the brief, security is a key part of that, and Dell ensures that all of our Telco solutions are integrated with zero trust as well. So we’ve seen use cases with military-based coverage and naval shipyards that can extend to smart bases where the customers are trying to reduce energy consumption, or it can support other use cases like government warehouses, right? So logistics, a big thing in government, the federal government is a large business and machine as it is, so how do we reduce losses and you know downtime from losing logistical items and stuff as they’re in transit, right? We’ve also seen use cases for border protection and civilian tactical uses, so obviously, it is no surprise, at least in the US, Southern borders focus area now, but it’s a pretty AER area, so how can we leverage our partners and our hardware to go out there and actually set up a private network to connect those border patrol agents to not only connect their personal coms but also all the integrated sensors that they have on the ground. And then obviously for DOD standalone in theater deployments, basically taking your network with you, right? So, taking and deploying a private network bubble that all your trusted devices can connect to extends forward and, obviously, back on campus.

Federal Private 5G Network building blocks

This is just an example of how we kind of integrate partners, right? So some of our network building blocks, so as you can see this here is more geared towards the Department of Homeland Security, but we can integrate sensors, partners that integrate those sensors, you know, kind of the orchestration piece, and that could be, you know, that could be Intel offerings, that could be GXE, Dejero is a big partner that you’ll hear from here shortly, but that all goes into actually getting back into the network itself, and we develop and work through a lot of the technical issues so customers don’t have to, like integration with a Leo provider like Starlink or OneWeb, and how do we get this to all work, you know, from the very far edge where these sensors are deployed all the way back through to the core network.

Dell is a big component of that ecosystem, and we work with all our partners very closely to make sure that all of these different solutions, because at the end of the day, there’s no really one partner that can give you everything that a customer may need or desire in their technical solution. Partnerships are key, and that’s why it’s great to be on this brief today with some of our partners that we work very closely with within the space.

Private Wirelessย Orchestrator (PWO) automates and simplifies the entire solution

And then last but not least, Dell has developed what we call Private Wireless Orchestrator, so that’s kind of a one pane of glass, single pane of glass experience that users can use to really look across the network. So this would kind of take the place of OSS and BSS in a typical commercial cellular network, and it really just helps the customers have a simple interface to look across the entire network, both on the RAN and the core side, and all the way down to the end-user devices, really pinpoint issues or areas that can be improved and really manage the network end to end. Right now, it’s benchmarked on cloud-based deployments, but that can be obviously migrated over to like an on-prem deployment as well. So with that, that’s all I have. I was fairly quick and look forward to any questions you may have, and I’ll pass it over to Hema for the next speaker. Thank you.

Private 5G/LTE Networks Third Poll Question from Dell Technologies | Interactive Polling Sessionย 

Thank you, Greg. Greg, we have some questions on the Q&A session but we can take them later. But before we go on to Jehan, I would like to introduce a third poll question, so would appreciate the response.ย 

What is your biggest challenge to accessing reliable internet connectivity in your work?

  • Network congestion
  • Building material interference (metal, concrete)
  • In motion
  • Lack of available networks in rural settings
  • Other

I know Hitesh, you are already responding. While they’re doing that poll, do you want me (Greg) to answer that one question there real quick?ย It was Spectrum, so CBRS is typically the default, though a lot of the government customers are looking at either unlicensed Spectrum right now, so stuff that’s typically earmarked for military use cases, or they leverage Telos to utilize spectrum that they’re not utilizing in certain spaces, so those could be licenses which give enhanced bandwidth, or it could be some of the spectrum that they’re not utilizing, you know, they have in a certain area.

Dejero’s Role in Private 5G/LTE Networks Deployment | Jehan Karim, Director of Global Business Development at Dejero (Panelist)

We would like to welcome our next panelist, Jehan Karim. Go ahead Jehan. Thanks, Hema, and thank you to all the panelists for a great discussion so far. Have a good day, everyone on the webinar. I appreciate you all joining us today.

From a Dejero perspective, I think I’m going to continue to reiterate the common thread that all the panelists have been mentioning, which is that being able to provide network capabilities, network technologies, and all this innovation, whether it be at the chip side of software level or at the solution level, is all driven by the customer application or, as Hitesh put it, the problem that needs to be solved right. The solution: where are we adding value? And I think from a Dejero perspective, you’re going to see that the next couple of slides will mostly talk about how we are looking at the customer problem.

Factors impacting cellular reception and available bandwidth

One of the key areas, and even one of the poll questions, was around when people are charting new territories when it comes to private 5G networks or just private cellular networks, which are 5G at the moment, maybe 6G in the near future. What are some of the things that they’re running into? As Greg put it, these are complex areas of technology; even when it comes to 5G, there’s wideband, there’s ultraband, there’s sub-6 gigahertz, there’s millimeter wave, there’s all these new things that IT and CIO shops have to deal with, and IT departments have to deal with.

From a Dejero perspective, I’ll touch on some of the areas that folks have to deal with when it comes to deploying networks, and as you see them illustrated on the diagram. I don’t want to go through each one of them, but what’s important to highlight here is that Dejero has helped or advised, or consulted with customers, partners, and solution providers that may or may not be Dejero to address some of these issues. These are just some of the considerations, as he said the slides would be provided after the webinar, that is important to look at when you’re actually looking at the aspects of operability, maintenance, and the usefulness of the network when it comes to deploying a private network for your applications.

Dejero Smart Blending Technologyโ„ข

To give everyone a quick overview of what Dejero is and our core competency, we focus on bringing reliable connectivity to the edge by making it provider- and technology-agnostic and able to blend multiple types of transports to create a single seamless network. The value of this is going to be highlighted in the next couple of slides, but essentially, by bringing together different types of accesses, whether they be wireline or wireless, and on the wireless side, maybe cellular, maybe SATCOM, maybe microwave, we realize that 90% of the time when you’re going into a customer environment, you’re dealing with some type of incumbent architecture.

Human beings are resourceful; they’ve figured out how to solve their problems with technologies that exist today, and they will continue to figure out how to solve problems that are going to be with technologies that are coming up in the near future or in the mid horizons. Dejero intends to provide our customers a seamless platform to leverage their existing solutions and capabilities along with the possibility of upcoming technologies, just as private 5G networks or SATCOM networks are a big conversation these days, with especially lower authority technologies being very prevalent.

That being said, I will conclude this slide by saying that if you think of Dejero, you are basically looking at a network of networks. I’m happy to answer any questions about how we do the low-level things, but I just wanted to highlight that we’re enabling a seamless network that’s a multi-transporter, multi-provider.

Private Network Backhaul for Construction Sites

Again, emphasizing customer applications, you know, Hitesh talked about being able to deploy a private cellular network or a private cell tower at a location where it’s really difficult to get communications. Looking at it from a customer perspective, Dejero is trying to solve that problem for those customers where you may have a mining site with 5,000 endpoints, you may have a construction site with 100 endpointsโ€”in this case, we’re talking about a construction siteโ€”but we do understand that even in our customers’ areas of operation or their site-level deployments, there may be sites that have private cellular networks deployed, there may be sites that may not have private cellular networks deployed, but being able to coordinate back with the enterprise, being able to coordinate with other remote sites is very critical.

So, in this particular example, where Dejero is bringing value is to be able to tie together those remote deployments using Dejero’s technology by bringing in various different transports seamlessly and supporting that local private cellular network, which doesn’t seem like just an experiment anymore or an initial deployment because you can seamlessly bring it into the enterprise environment. So the customer is not only deploying next-generation technology, but they’re seamlessly integrating it into today’s picture by using Dejero and by extending the enterprise data sets, applications, and collaboration tools to the edge.

So, that kind of highlights the use case from a Dejero perspective. For our construction site that’s actually one of the key areas where we’re deploying, we’re seeing the deployment of private networks where there’s more collaboration and communications required, and a construction site seems to be a primary candidate for that at the moment.

Hybrid Connectivity over Public and Private Networks

To kind of look at it another way, this slide is really simplified, but what we wanted to highlight here is, again, talking about going into customer environments, you’re typically not looking at greenfield environments. So not only is Dejero providing the ability to backhaul a local private network, but we also have the ability to provide edge access utilizing private and public networks. So, the customers, if they have access to public networks at a certain location, can segregate their application traffic, can segregate their payloads, and can prioritize certain traffic over certain networks while still optimizing their total cost of ownership, as mentioned.

So if they’ve got an existing solution, they can continue to ramp down that solution maybe and ramp up a private network deployment while they’re still running their operations. You know, you don’t have to shut down your business and we all understand the impact of downtime in an enterprise environment. The ability to extend the private network seamlessly to the edge, wherein a current environment, may be Wi-Fi, maybe public cellular networks, maybe something else like a mesh network, we can come in seamlessly and provide that cutover to the private network and help the customer navigate that.

And again, Dejero’s ability to provide that seamlessly within public networks, private networks, and multiple types of networks really improves the efficiency, the reliability, the bandwidth, the coverage from a customer perspective, and we really truly think that’s where the value lies on the enterprise side.ย I think that concludes my slides. Back to you.

Private 5G/LTE Networks Fourth Poll Question from Dejero | Interactive Polling Session

Thank you. Before we open the Q&A, let me have one last poll question. Thank you all for the responses.

What is your primary goal for adopting a private network?

  • Enhanced security and privacy
  • Improved connectivity and coverage
  • Network customization and control
  • Cost management
  • Innovation enablement

Private 5G/LTE Networks Q&A Session: Expert Responses to Audience Inquiries

Let’s start with the Q&A.ย 

Why is the solution called ONYX, for curiosity?

Thank you for the question! Onyx, the stone – was used in Egypt to make tools, pottery, and bowls that served survival purposesโ€ฆwe liked the analogy as we do the same for businesses – we help them build tools that can be used to thrive! ๐Ÿ™‚

Is the GXC 5G Mesh network based in IAB (Integrated Access Backhaul)?

Thank you for the question! GXC Mesh is a proprietary custom software & hardware combination, whereas IAB is the 3gpp standard. Iโ€™d say there may be some similarities in principle, but itโ€™s our own IP

What spectrum does DoD use in these use cases? CBRS ? or DoD licensed?

CBRS is typically the default, though a lot of the government customers are looking at either unlicensed Spectrum right now, so stuff that’s typically earmarked for military use cases, or they leverage Telos to utilize spectrum that they’re not utilizing in certain spaces, so those could be licenses which give enhanced bandwidth, or it could be some of the spectrum that they’re not utilizing, you know, they have in a certain area.

Can you offer reliable connectivity on large bodies of water?

Yeah, happy to answer that, Hema. So we actually do provide, again in public, in the public safety domain as you can imagine, customers have areas of operation that are land-based, they’ve got areas of operation that are aerial, especially with drones and other fixed wi assets that are deploying, and of course, there’s Maritime assets both on the Enterprise side and on the public safety side where customers are using our solutions to make again their comm’s capability more resilient. So when you talk about large quantities of water, yes, we have customers utilizing our solutions today to have not just literal water access or communications access, which is shallow water access to comms, they’re using our comms capability to provide blue water access, which is deep water access, and then have that not only available in those areas but seamlessly traverse between blue water, deep water operations, shallow water operations, and onshore operations. So yes, in a nutshell, we have customers utilizing our platform in those environments. Hopefully, that answers the question.ย 

Can an edge device such as a camera with a 5G encoder move seamlessly between two cells without a glitch (handover)?

Steve says an edge device such as a camera with a 5G encoder more seamlessly between two cells without a glitch, handover can, yes, 100% we’ve actually gotten use cases today that you use a brand name camera; maybe I can name the brand it’s pretty common, Varata cameras they use our solution to plop in our SIM card into the cameras, work C is just one brand we worked with a few other ones as well, and now these cameras are literally free to go plop them wherever you want to plop them, and you have security coverage so it works seamlessly and if you are thinking about transitioning between cells that are also very well supported. There are some details about our solution that I haven’t gone into yet because we are still in the final steps of kind of formalizing it, but maybe in a future session, right? but we do have a concept that makes 5G even more efficient, which circulates around a front hall multiplexer if you know that as a concept, so it’s still something that we are buttoning up, as I mentioned, and it’ll be in one of our near term releases but the whole concept there is to facilitate use cases like this one in 5G where the cell radius just because of the physics of the wave wavelengths and the frequency bands are not that long range and we don’t want too many handovers or ping-ponging to happen so that’s definitely a feature on the product.

And does that include the mesh node?

The second question is, does that include the mesh node not just yet? but yeah, eventually, the mesh node will also be fully up to speed with all of those features.ย 

Does mesh deployment reduce the available data rate for devices?

Tom Gilly, does mesh deployment reduce available data rate for devices – not in a very significant manner I mean of course if you do multiple hops then you start seeing some impact of it but for the most part what we’ve realized or seen in tests and you know our customers have told us is that they don’t really see much of a difference for what they want to do and part of it is because we’ve tested it and we’ve optimized it specifically for that type of deployment like we’ve tweaked certain stack protocol to make sure that there is no the penalty for having a wireless in wireless out is minimal and literally that is our intellectual property right like the Box the mesh node is not a dumb box that’s taking in something and spitting out the same thing out it is is where we use the concepts of anti-noise and things of that nature that allow us to process the incoming signal if it’s deteriorated due to reflections and refractions make it a more richer more stronger signal and propagate it further so the impact is very minimal in our tests.ย 

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