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According to industry analysts, the enterprise 5G market is expected to reach USD 10.9 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 31.8%. This growth rate, particularly in the enterprise segment, is new to cellular wireless technologies. Until 4G, the cellular technology focused on providing increased bit rate in user devices, making it a growth engine for telecom service providers. So why is 5G more attractive for an enterprise? What does 5G newly offer that is viewed by enterprises as a gamechanger for them? Let us explore.       

Needs of a digital enterprise:

A real digital enterprise can quickly adopt new technologies and use them as a lever to elevate itself to a newer paradigm. Today, most large enterprises are looking at some form of digital transformation to usher in a technology-driven change. The typical areas of focus for these enterprises fall under one of the following categories -

  1. Workforce enablement
  2. Processes optimization
  3. Automation of operations
  4. Infrastructure management

In all these areas, the key principle behind digital transformation is to reduce human effort. As software takes up the regular work, enterprises can re-vector their human resources to undertake more complex cognitive tasks. The main technologies that are helping enterprises to achieve this are cloud technologies, the internet of things, industrial automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and autonomous systems. These technologies require a solid communication infrastructure to function effectively.

Are enterprise networks ready to deliver to the growing needs today?

Framework

 

The current state of enterprise communication infrastructure:

Enterprise communication needs are predominantly served by Wi-Fi, wired ethernet and public cellular networks, with cellular connectivity used mainly for voice communications. As enterprises started implementing new use cases, the traditional communication infrastructure became inadequate in recent times. There are three main challenges in the existing setup:

  1. Enterprises today must use a mix of multiple communication technologies to meet their growing new use cases. For example, to implement a sensor network for a smart building use case, enterprises must adopt a low power narrowband technology like LoRA.
  2. Most of the business-critical functions are implemented on wired ethernet networks as these use cases require high reliability and low latency. Lack of mobility constrains them from being agile. For instance, changing an assembly line in a factory is a massive undertaking due to the underlying wired infrastructure.
  3. Many applications and local data path breakout require placement at the edge for latency and security reasons. But cellular networks today lack the flexibility to support such architectures.

What if there is one network that addressed these needs and is fully managed and operated by enterprises without depending on public networks? 5G is the answer to this question.

 

How 5G is changing the game for digital enterprises:

A good communication infrastructure influence enterprise digital transformation in a big way, and 5G is the technology that the world is considering. The fundamental difference between the earlier generations of cellular wireless networks (till 4G) and 5G is that 5G is designed to connect devices beyond mobile handsets. When we start connecting wirelessly, it opens a whole new world of use cases that were not possible before. 5G brings the following improvements over the previous generations.

  1. Increased bandwidth
  2. Very low latency
  3. Guaranteed reliability
  4. Massive capacity to connect many devices

 

Let us look at how each of these influences the transformation journey of a digital enterprise.

Improved bandwidth – 5G network is designed to operate at very high bandwidths. Each component carrier supports up to 400MHz compared to 20MHz in 4G and aggregates up to 8 component carriers to give a massive capacity. Such a large bandwidth is available at the millimeter-wave band and is supported by 5G. Peak data rates of close to 1 Gbps per device are already possible today, and it can go up 10 Gbps in the future when mmwave, massive MIMO and carrier aggregation are implemented. In addition, it unlocks a new class of use cases that exploit AR/VR and AI.

For example, it can help enterprise workforce enablement via remote training, remote assistance for field personnel and remote operations. This additional bandwidth permits collection of massive amounts of device data. It can help transform operations using AI by enabling significant data gathering, which was impossible with earlier technologies.

Very low latency – 5G network is designed to provide a radio interface latency for ~1ms compared to 4G with ~10ms radio interface latency. This ten-fold improvement in the air interface latency coupled with compute at the edge provides a marked improvement in the latency, which opens yet another class of use cases.

For example, real-time decision-making using AI is made possible with low latency. Further, autonomous systems can now collect large volumes of data and send it to the backend systems in real-time, where there is enough compute capacity to run intensive analytics to take corrective actions. This spells a huge opportunity for operations and business process automation in enterprises.

Guaranteed reliability – With guaranteed reliability, mission-critical use cases can go mobile. Remote robotic controls with tactile interactions can transform the core business of enterprises. 5G networks provide ultra-reliable communications with built-in redundancy for every packet that is transmitted over the network. The reliability is guaranteed through continuous monitoring of the network parameters.

Guaranteed reliability helps transform SCADA systems that are currently on fixed industrial networks. Once such systems move to mobile networks, they can transform the manufacturing process significantly. Autonomous systems are another example that can benefit from high reliability. Further, the speed of these systems can be continuously improved.

Massive capacity of devices – Finally, the 5G network allows millions of devices to be connected, introducing small sensor devices into the gamut of connected devices.

5G can bring in a new way of infrastructure management for enterprises. For example, there is no need for manual scanning of RFIDs and bar/QR codes when low power tags can be tracked over a 5G network. In addition, 5G positioning technologies are evolving, and it will be soon possible to locate a device with 30cm accuracy.

 

Conclusion:

The 5G network is designed to cater to every possible communication need of a real digital enterprise. Moreover, it is continuously evolving to support the growing needs of enterprises. Thus, we have one network that caters to every communication need across industries for the first time in enterprise communications.

A real digital enterprise has a framework that continuously promotes automation, thereby minimizing human intervention in its processes. The current pandemic has shown that enterprises with such a framework can withstand any challenge and excel in their core business. Creating a communication infrastructure that enables other technologies to work together seamlessly is the first step towards creating such a framework. In that context, 5G is a silver bullet for the digital transformation journey.

 

About the Authors:

Hari

1. Hariharan B: Principal Technology Architect – Network Engineering Services, Infosys Ltd

Manju

2. Manjunath DK: Associate Vice President and Global Delivery Head – Network Engineering Services, Infosys Ltd


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