5G DRIVE

Partners

Virgin Media O2, wavemobile Ltd, Cisco, Ori Industries, University of Warwick (WMG)

5G technology presents many commercial opportunities for the mobile telecommunications industry, especially in the Manufacturing, Utilities, Construction, Transport, Retail and Critical Infrastructure sectors. Private Networks complemented by Multiple-access Edge computing capabilities that are; cost efficient, secure, scalable & robust will drive this digital transformation and a vital first step to deliver 5G use cases & applications in these sectors.

This consortium is developing a 5G Open & Diversified RAN Integration solution for private mobile networks, that is low cost, secure, and capable of integrating with public networks. The consortium is also including a ‘Vendor Evaluation phase’ for private 5G RAN vendors to test their networks against the solution concepts.

Integrating public and private 5G networks at scale, with robust security at affordable prices is a key challenge for every mobile operator, and 5G DRIVE sets out to solve that problem for the industry.

Below is the latest video from the 5G Drive Project...

5G-Drive.eu

Project Overview from Innovation Briefing Issue 8

A major challenge for every mobile operator is the integration of the private networks in a secure and cost-effective manner.

This project sets out to solve that problem for the industry.

The project sees one of the largest operators in the UK working with one of the smallest. Led by Virgin Mobile O2, The 5G Drive consortium brings together Wavemobile, Cisco, Ori Industries, and the University of Warwick. Wavemobile brings its expertise in depolying small, specialist networks targetted at notspots. Ori Industries is expert at deploying cloud-based edge processing technologies.

Rapid growth and interest in private networks means a more streamlined approach needs to be taken to get private and public networks working side by side. In the past it has been possible to treat each instance as a special case but the volume of new deployments makes this impractical.

The 5G Drive project is developing an 5G Open and Diversified RAN Integration solution for private mobile networks, that is low cost, secure, and capable of integrating with public networks. The consortium will also include a ‘Vendor Evaluation phase’ for private 5G RAN vendors to test their networks against the solution concepts.

The objective is to make it easier for the customers of the mobile network operators to install their own private enterprise networks in a manner which is as uncomplicated for both parties as possible.

The business opportunity for the project is to find a low cost and secure solution that will allow Diversified/open private 5G network RAN vendors to be easily Integrated into public networks, as well as carrying out Vendor Evaluation of the developed Future RAN Competition solutions too.