5G as a Service (What Is It & What Are the Benefits?)

What Is 5G as a Service?

5G as a service is a model in which 5G networks are designed, built, and maintained by a provider on a subscription basis. This solution is built to the requirements of a specific enterprise and to integrate into an enterprise’s existing network.

Similar to cloud-based businesses, 5G as a service aims to enable flexibility in consumption for enterprises that want to expand quickly and reliably. 5G as a service also enables managed service providers to add cellular to their list of managed services by leasing infrastructure from carriers or taking advantage of private 5G solutions.

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Benefits of 5G as a Service

With the basics covered, let's explore some key benefits of 5G as a service for both enterprises and service providers.

Simplicity

5G as a service can be simply for enterprise customers looking to add 5G to their repertoire. 

On the customer end, private 5G networks support many of the same laptops, tablets, sensors, and phones already in use across the enterprise. When it comes time to add those devices to the network, a simple QR scan automatically provisions the device via eSIM. This multi-SIM technology allows the device to work on both private and public networks if needed, supporting the popular trend BYOD.

For network operators, infrastructure setup and onboarding is simple through plug-and-play platforms like Celona. During the discovery phase, the Celona Network Planner helps managed service providers understand their needs for a location based on the performance and coverage requirements you set. 

The planning tool even queries private cellular spectrum services (such as the Spectrum Access System in the United States for CBRS spectrum) so you know exactly what spectrum is available in and around an enterprise facility. Network management and administration are performed through a cloud-based operations dashboard, allowing easy access for enterprise customers as well as the managed services provider for multi-tenant views.

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Cost

From a cost perspective, enterprises use 5G as a service to expand their coverage quickly across targeted areas by reducing the upfront investment for infrastructure.

We see this model applied at scale as most companies leverage existing data centers to support their cloud-based applications and storage needs. Enterprises can quickly validate their new critical applications as part of a private 5G network rollout. 

This presents a new opportunity for service providers as enterprises look to take advantage of 5G-powered technology such as augmented reality, autonomous vehicles, and deterministic wireless. While 5G is typically more expensive than 4G, software-defined networking aim to reduce cost through virtualization and open-source hardware design.

Flexibility

5G as a service offers the widest range of flexibility for customers in terms of options, coverage, and performance. While widespread 5G as a service is still on the horizon, in the near future enterprises will be able to shop around for different providers similar to how we compare AWS to Google Cloud today.

Managed service providers can stay competitive by offering pay-as-you-go pricing or multiple subscription plans to cater to different size environments. Celona MicroSlicing enables the flexibility required to support environments with a wide-ranging set of devices and applications by allowing enterprises to set guaranteed service levels on any device type and application performance requirements vs. having to manually provision each connected device with a QoS policy configuration. 

Patented MicroSlicing technology works by integrating directly into your customer’s environment through existing IT infrastructure allowing you to set, sync, and monitor service levels across both cellular and IP-based networks.

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How 5G as a Service Works

Deploying 5G as a service can be broken down into a few key steps: design, hardware, and management. 

Design

Planning and design are critical to a successful private 5G implementation. Tools like the Celona Network Planner provide a fast and efficient way to understand your hardware requirements as well as the private spectrum (e.g. CBRS spectrum in the US) availability in your coverage area. Administrators should consider their service levels, device density, and coverage area while planning 5G as a service.

Design tools not only help you visualize your 5G network but can give you an exact hardware estimate based on your inputs. This helps you prepare and understand exactly how many indoor and outdoor access points you’ll need.

Hardware

With a plan in place, both network infrastructure and end user devices must be prepared. Thankfully, this process is much simpler through Celona’s plug-and-play design for its cellular access points and a mature list of private cellular capable devices. 

Similar to Wi-Fi, cellular access points can quickly be deployed both indoors and outdoors across your environment, after a predictive heatmap created during the design stage. Installation can be done right over existing Wi-Fi networks with no downtime required. You can get a behind-the-scenes look at this process in part 4 of the Celona’s hands-on lab course.

Laptops, tablets, sensors, and phones can be provisioned through either physical SIM or digital eSIM. eSIM deployments allow administrators to simply send QR codes to users and have them enroll their personal or corporate devices. More enterprise MDM support is in the works to automatically apply policies per device.

Management

Through a web console, administrators can manage service levels, device orchestration, and key performance indicators from a web-based dashboard. Unlike traditional quality of service, administrators can set exact throughput, latency, and packet error rate requirements for individual applications and device groups - enforced via the Celona Edge, installed on enterprise on-premises local area network (LAN) infrastructure.

The Celona Edge was designed with enterprises in mind and can run on any virtualized environment, allowing both service providers and enterprises to horizontally scale by simply allocating more compute resources.

On the back-end, machine learning algorithms continuously monitor network performance and make dynamic changes to ensure service levels are always met regardless of resource usage.

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Worry-Free 5G with Celona

Whether you’re an enterprise searching for 5G as a service or a managed services provider (MSP) looking for new services to offer, Celona can help. 

Our private 5G solution integrates directly with your enterprise's IT infrastructure allowing administrators to easily synchronize secure mobility for critical applications. Behind the scenes, a Celona MicroSlicing technology enables proactive monitoring; it manages traffic flows across the network to meet service level objectives such as throughput and latency requirements.

Celona uses cloud networking principles to make implementing 5G as a service an out-of-box experience. Onboarding can be done alongside existing enterprise applications, devices, LAN design, network security solutions, without interrupting business operations.

Check out our network planner to help estimate the size of your private cellular network, or test drive Celona’s unique solution for yourself with a free trial.

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