For a while now, the service provider space has been dominated by questions about which “killer app” would emerge to help mobile operators start realizing more significant returns on the 5G and edge investments of the past several years. Today, the marketplace is zeroing in on an answer: enterprise private networks.
Private network - including 5G and LTE cellular, satellite, and hybrid deployments using multiple technologies - offer a compelling alternative to the traditional enterprise network. With the ability to fine-tune connectivity for specific application requirements (such as ultra-low latency, nonstop resiliency, and guaranteed throughput), businesses can unlock new levels of automated, efficient operations. At the same time, the very attributes that make private networks so attractive pose significant new challenges for those seeking to deliver them.
If you’re part of an organization looking to capitalize on this rapidly growing market, you’ll need to build up a wide range of new capabilities. Not only will you need to address stringent performance requirements for more diverse, highly specialized vertical applications, you’ll need to assure that you’re continually meeting those targets under strict service-level agreements (SLAs).
As the leading global provider of network testing and validation, we’ve been working closely with stakeholders across the private networking ecosystem developing the first wave of commercial solutions. We’ve seen firsthand how the complexity of private networks, as well as their unique requirements and risks, demand new approaches to network management and assurance, and to service delivery itself.
Scoping the opportunity
For mobile operators, system integrators, and others investing in private network offerings, the market looks poised for explosive growth. Analysys Mason forecasts that the global private networking market will reach US$7.7 billion by 2027, with three verticals in particular - mining/oil and gas; transport and logistics; and especially manufacturing - making up 80% of the initial opportunity.
Why such rapid adoption? With the ability to tailor network behavior for specialized applications and use cases, businesses can automate operations to a degree that wasn’t possible before. They can gain pervasive observability and control over equipment, vehicles, and other business assets. And they can substantially drive down costs, while increasing business agility and differentiation.
These are significant, potentially transformational new business capabilities, and enterprises are willing to pay a premium for them. Provided, that is, those delivering private networks can not only meet the extreme requirements of next-generation business applications, but guarantee performance under strict SLAs. Given the complexity of private network deployments, and the diversity of use cases and application requirements they need to support, this is no small task.
For example, a private network in an automated factory will need to support very low latencies for real- time, precision control of robotics and industrial equipment. An oil rig or wind farm might require high throughput to remote locations to support digital twin applications and predictive maintenance. Private networks for ports, large vehicle fleets, financial institutions, and other businesses introduce still more varied requirements. Even within the same vertical - sometimes the same customer environment - you can expect to encounter a wide variety of enterprise applications, use cases, and hybrid deployment models. Depending on coverage, spectrum availability, and technical requirements, a single customer might use multiple wireless technologies (5G, LTE, Wi-Fi), multiple domains (wireless, wireline), and multiple vendors and service providers.
Meeting new requirements
The rewards for those who can deliver on the promise of private networks will be significant. But first, providers will need to build new capabilities across multiple dimensions, including the ability to:
- Deliver commercial-ready solutions: Don’t expect to treat private networks as a fully baked product that can be deployed in the same way, at scale. Rather, it’s up to the provider to ensure that all the diverse technologies, vendors, and service providers in a given deployment work together as a cohesive solution, and can deliver the performance, resiliency, and security the customer expects.
- Meet demanding performance requirements: Enterprises will pay a premium for consistent service levels in private networks, as failing to meet performance thresholds can directly impact business continuity. In an automated factory, for example, missing latency targets could damage equipment, shut down operations, and lead to huge financial losses and even injuries. To guarantee service attributes under strict SLAs though, you’ll need the ability to continually monitor and validate both network and application performance.
- Expand service-level control: The disaggregated ecosystem of private network suppliers and solutions, all tailored to different mission-critical use cases, makes the ability to manage overall service levels essential. Yet isolating and remediating problems in multi-domain/multi- vendor/multi-technology environments gets massively complex. Trusted, vendor-neutral management and assurance capabilities are essential to continually verify that each player contributing to the solution is consistently meeting contracted service levels.
- Simplify testing: Given the diversity of private network technologies and deployment models, the operational costs for supporting them could quickly spiral out of control. Flexible, scalable, and automated testing and validation become absolutely essential.
Building a framework for comprehensive testing
With so much variation in private network use cases, technologies, and service-levels, there are inevitably many more opportunities for problems to arise. Rigorous, vendor-agnostic testing becomes essential at every stage in the lifecycle: network design and validation testing, field and acceptance testing, and ongoing operations and maintenance of the live network.
As you map out your validation and assurance strategy for new private network offerings, make sure to implement testing that is:
- Agile, so you can quickly customize and continually reuse test and validation tools for diverse, heterogeneous use cases and SLAs
- Continuous, so you can validate changes to any part of the network before they go live, and continually, proactively test services against contracted performance and resiliency requirements
- Automated, so you can address a wider range of requirements across the network lifecycle and respond quickly to problems, while keeping operational costs under control
With the ability to test and verify every aspect of private network behavior across the lifecycle, you can continually roll out new, targeted enterprise private network offerings with confidence. You’ll have the agility to meet a wide range of specialized enterprise requirements and to quickly move wherever the next opportunity takes you.
