How Does 5G LAN Work? A Complete Guide

How Does 5G LAN Work?

5G LAN is a dedicated enterprise wireless network built to meet an organization's specific needs for critical infrastructure connectivity. 5G LAN integrates into an organizations’ existing IT network infrastructure and delivers the following:

• High-capacity and low latency enterprise wireless,
• Deterministic QoS policies for latency, throughput and packet error rate on device groups and applications, and
• Very large and predictable coverage areas and high speed mobility for mobile, IoT and robotics.

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What Exactly Is a 5G LAN?

5G LAN is a local area network that leverages 5G wireless technology for connectivity, as opposed to Wi-Fi or network cabling. 5G LAN architecture enables enterprises to reap the reliability and performance benefits of 5G cellular technology in a configuration that their IT controls. This private mobile network architecture delivers specific operational benefits beyond what’s possible with existing enterprise network technologies.

5G LAN uses plug-and-play technologies and integrates with existing IT infrastructure to make installing 5G as simple as setting up a Wi-Fi LAN. This level of simplicity, control, and visibility allows enterprises to scale strategically and ensure their most critical applications are guaranteed the resources they need.

5G LAN architecture combines the performance benefits of a 5G network with the privacy and control of a traditional LAN. This blend of performance and control provides organizations with predictable connectivity that can be tailored to their applications and business goals.

For example, hospitals can create service level agreements that ensure certain healthcare applications always receive the resources they need. This can be tuned right down to the exact throughput and latency requirements.

To better understand how a 5G LAN works, let’s explore how a 5G LAN is different from commercial 5G services.

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How Is a 5G LAN Different from Commercial 5G?

Many commercial carriers and managed service providers offer business plans that include access to 5G services. Commercial 5G typically involves service contracts with data rate limits and overage charges that could interfere with supporting an enterprise service. Overages could trigger additional charges or throttle data rate and bandwidth resulting in complications in being able to support new generation of devices and initiatives within an enterprise environment where the device and application mix is in constant change.

From a privacy and control perspective, enterprises have very little say in how their data is handled and where it goes. While commercial carriers have massive networks, enterprises have no control over the carrier’s security practices or how traffic is routed.

When it comes to controlling cellular resources, quality of service is typically limited to certain locations and certain devices. This leaves administrators with little control over how specific applications or contextual groups maintain certain levels of performance.

The 5G LAN solution was developed to empower administrators within enterprise companies to integrate 5G services into their LAN architecture as seamlessly as possible. The 5G LAN can work alongside Wi-Fi networks and inherit existing security controls, QoS policies and service-level objectives from the LAN, saving countless hours of integration time.

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Components of a 5G LAN

Numerous systems work together to allow the 5G LAN to function. Below we’ll explore few of the components as part of an overall 5G LAN architecture.

Private Spectrum

In order to ensure availability of spectrum dedicated for secure enterprise communication and interference-free wireless connectivity, 5G LANs use private spectrum options such as CBRS in the United States. Within a 5G LAN, private spectrum is made available as part of the solution, eliminating the enterprises to purchase their own licenses separately, which enables ease of use and rapid deployment.

Network Infrastructure

5G LANs leverage their own infrastructure to meet the specific coverage and capacity requirements for each environment. A combination of small cells (also known as indoor and outdoor access points), mobile core software, network orchestration and SIM provisioning capabilities can work together to provide reliable coverage.

A private mobile network planner can help organizations understand their hardware requirements based on their goals and environment. Devices on the 5G LAN must be capable of cellular connectivity and support private spectrum bands in order to communicate. Thankfully there is an expansive list of private spectrum compatible devices to choose from.

Application Aware Policies

What gives 5G LAN architecture its unmatched level of control and visibility into your cellular resources is its ability to create granular service level objectives for Quality of Service (QoS), minimum throughput, maximum latency, and packet error rate controls for specific applications and device groups. Once these policies are set and integrated with existing enterprise IT infrastructure, 5G LANs truly become part of the enterprise IT environment.

Self-Organizing Network

5G LANs use self-organizing networks to provide dynamic RF management, balance spectrum availability, and schedule traffic based on each service level objective for device group and application type. This allows the 5G LAN to automatically make changes within the RF environment and take actions in order to improve overall network capacity.

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The Celona Solution

In the past, the barrier to entry for private 5G has been quite steep. Organizations needed to acquire their own spectrum licenses, purchase expensive infrastructure, and hire cellular experts to maintain the system. This however is no longer the case.

Celona partners with enterprise organizations to provide private 5G services as a seamless turnkey solution. Much like how the private spectrum options have opened the airways, Celona has developed hardware and software that make designing a 5G LAN as simple as setting up a Wi-Fi network. From plug-and-play access points to templated dashboards, Celona’s 5G LAN solution is designed to intrated within the existing IT infrastructure.

Celona uses edgeless enterprise architecture and cloud-based artificial intelligence to make implementing private mobile networks an out-of-box experience. Onboarding can be done alongside existing wireless and IT infrastructure, without interrupting business operations.

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If you’re looking to build cellular wireless connectivity for your new digital initiatives, we can help. Check out our network planner to see what your Celona network would look like, and test-drive the Celona solution via product demonstrations and a free trial.

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