The need for private Wi-Fi networks in enterprise is growing due to the arrival of new IoT use cases, but there is also a case to be made for businesses having their own private Wi-Fi solution separate from the network their customers and visitors use. It is expected the Wi-Fi data accounted for 50% of business internet traffic by end of 2023.
This Private 5G and Wi-Fi Convergence: Key Use Cases and Requirements report outlines the critical role new and existing Wi-Fi infrastructure has yet to play in maximizing the potential of 5G, allowing organizations to move to fully converged platforms that offer broad, frictionless coverage and effortless user onboarding.
The paper goes on to outline four possible deployment models for bringing 5G into enterprise networks, as well as the key considerations for choosing each one, such as the nature of the application, latency in the core and RAN interfaces, and the location and manageability of services. The four models are as follows:
- On-premises core network and application services – Data sovereignty, site resiliency, and application latency requirements are ensured by keeping all traffic on-prem. Access to conventional enterprise cloud-based applications is enabled, subject to normal limitations around resiliency and latency.
- On-Premises user plane and application services – The paper outlines several reasons to move the control plane to the cloud, such as the need for control plane aggregation in a multi-site 5G core network deployment. All other 5G elements and the application services are on-premises, except the 5G control plane elements.
- Cloud-based core network and application services – User plane traffic from 5G devices will always have to enter the cloud. In such deployment models, it may be possible to move the 5G core network and user plane elements to the cloud where the applications services are located.
- The hybrid model – There are some application services in the cloud, and some are on-prem. To support such a model, there can be two different Data Network Names (DNN’s), one for supporting applications that are on-premises and another for supporting applications in the cloud.
Contact the WBA team and learn more about phase 2 of ‘5G & Wi-Fi Convergence in Private 5G Networks’ project which will move beyond modeling and onto deployment guidelines and trial cases.
This whitepaper is brought to you by:
This project is led by the WBA 5G Work Group
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