Deploying private 5G at a single site is one thing, but operating it across dozens or even hundreds of sites is something else entirely.
Most enterprises don’t operate uniform environments. They have small processing facilities with minimal staff, large manufacturing plants with complex automation, and yards or distribution centres spread across remote regions. What these sites often share is a lack of local IT and OT expertise or even space to mount server equipment.
That reality shapes how private 5G must be designed.
If every site requires on-site cellular specialists, complex infrastructure, or frequent expert intervention, the operating model collapses under its own weight. Sending engineers to remote locations isn’t financially or operationally scalable.
At the same time, enterprises still need consistency. Security policies must be consistently enforced, performance expectations must be predictable, and visibility must be centralised. The answer is not to centralise everything, but to centralise what makes sense.
Celona AerFlex addresses this problem with an AP-only private 5G deployment. In this model, the control plane (configuration, policy, lifecycle management, and monitoring) is centrally managed by an orchestrator. This gives enterprises a single place to define policies and manage their entire private 5G footprint.
The user plane, however, remains local. Data traffic doesn’t hairpin through a central core or cloud, so applications run on-site, and latency stays low. More critically, the site continues to operate even if connectivity to the control plane is temporarily disrupted.
For smaller sites, this enables extremely lightweight deployments. One or two radios connect directly to existing switches or routers, with no on-site core or dedicated edge appliances. From an operational standpoint, local staff need only handle basic physical tasks such as mounting hardware or inserting SIMs. Configuration, upgrades, and monitoring are handled centrally.
This is what makes private 5G viable as a distributed system rather than a collection of isolated projects. Enterprises can start with one site, expand to dozens, and maintain a consistent operational model throughout.
What to do next
Evaluate private 5G architectures through the lens of your smallest, least-staffed site. If it works there without expert intervention, it will scale across the rest of your sites.
