David Joosten of Vodafone US explores the transformative impact of Mobile Private Networks (MPNs), revolutionizing IoT connectivity across industries with security, scalability, and personalized coverage.
The Internet of Things (IoT) isn’t the future; it’s already here. Connected online devices today outnumber humans and are set to grow further, empowering manufacturing, industry, and science.
There’s another acronym you need to know about. The future of our infrastructure lies in MPNs – Mobile Private Networks – which will give them greater connectivity, security, and scalability.
What MPNs Do
A Mobile Private Network (MPN) is a private network dedicated to the specific needs of the end-user, authenticated via a dedicated spectrum and a private SIM. Also called a private LTE or campus network, private mobile networks deliver more personalized and private coverage, connecting businesses to people – and things – using 4G or 5G.
The availability of spectrum and lightweight core software has enabled the emergence of MPNs, and they were a headline feature of Mobile World Congress 2022, where both AWS and Microsoft announced they would become suppliers of MPNs.
MPNs are critical to delivering the predictable, private, and secure connectivity required by the fourth industrial revolution, empowering everything from manufacturing to healthcare. Unlike Wi-Fi, MPN-enabled data is ring-fenced, deterministic, and can be configured to the unique demands of the end-user. This enables more predictable and scalable levels of bandwidth and coverage and enables the interaction between connected devices to be managed more efficiently.
MPN supports new applications and a company’s existing services with a local network on its premises, providing stable and secure connectivity. This enables MPNs to provide an alternative to Wi-Fi or a public mobile network by providing private, protected data coverage. By installing dedicated equipment on-site, the MPN user can customize their connectivity as only their own devices and applications can connect to the network. In doing this, MPNs remove the risk of network congestion and enhance security, as data remains on customers’ premises.
Low Latency for IoT
Importantly, MPNs support low latency environments and 5G, enabling the hyperconnectivity required for IoT delivered at scale. 5G promises low latency and speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second. That’s 100 times faster than 4G delivering the performance levels needed for industrialized IoT, the latter of which is projected to reach US$1.18 trillion in value this year.
Critical industries and businesses rely on a better-connected IoT, including manufacturing, healthcare, and logistics. For example, Ford Motors and the Welding Institute are piloting MPN-supported edge computing to build electric car batteries more efficiently. This requires vast amounts of data to be collected in an ultra-high speed, low-latency environment and then applied in real-time to the manufacturing process to safeguard efficient battery manufacture. Remote sites that need to share lots of common data may need two MPN access points connected with a VPN. Ford and The Welding Institute are separated by 100 kilometers, illustrating how interconnected MPNs join up the modern world.
See More: IoT Role, Examples, Trends
MPN in Connected Healthcare and Infrastructure
MPNs can also be applied to healthcare, enabling the rapid sharing of massive volumes of critical data within hospital buildings that may have varying levels of physical access. An example is the University Hospital in Dusseldorf, Germany, where staff uses an MPN-enabled dedicated SIM to share patient data with relevant healthcare professionals securely. In this way, an MPN can privately connect many devices across an expansive facility, such as a university or a manufacturing and research campus.
Healthcare is one of the fastest-growing sectors of the IoT market. The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) is predicted to reach $187bn by 2028. This bases much of its business model on remote patient monitoring of critical health systems such as heart rates, body temperature, and blood sugar levels. This will also need secure and scaled-up connectivity, which MPNs can deliver.
MPNs will also be applied to critical infrastructure relying on location data such as airports, factories, mines, ports, energy installations, logistics hubs, and even smart cities. IoT’s monitoring and predictive maintenance also require scaled-up connectivity; when combined with edge computing, MPN can support immediate responses and decision-making to connect workforces, control drones, robots, and remote industrial assets.
MPNs Underpin Our Future Real and Virtual Environments
The Global IoT manufacturing market is forecast to generate $87bn by 2026, and the data connectivity supporting it is being developed worldwide, including in the US. An example is Anterix, a US-based operator, focused on delivering private LTE solutions to the energy, transport, and logistics sectors. In 2021, Anterix announced a $50 million deal with San Diego Gas & Electric to provide the license for its broadband allocation, forming the foundation of smart-grid and wildfire mitigation initiatives. Likewise, Norway’s Tampnet provides connectivity for offshore oil, gas, and wind industries. Utilizing a private 4G LTE, Tampnet enables high-capacity connection in the harshest environmental conditions.
Another example is California-based Celona, which allows companies to operate and own their mobile infrastructure. Celona was involved in a successful IoT trial with companies involved in logistics and shipping, later partnering with Inseego to simplify the deployment of private LTE cellular networks for enterprises needing to digitize their network capabilities.
MPNs can also support services with connectivity requirements that may not be offered on a public network, such as machine-to-machine connectivity or virtual reality. An example is the UK’s Zeetta network which deploys a 5G MPN, low latency service to deliver augmented and virtual reality to support remote training for manufacturing, with a purported 20% cost reduction in training.
Interestingly, we are seeing competition in the MPN space come from competitors and vendors developing MPNs in-house and buying their own spectrum. The advantage of staying with telecommunications operators is that we are regulated and must abide by certain rules over how a spectrum is used. The emergence of such competition is ultimately a good thing for customers. It allows them to control the devices connected to an MPN network, even across competing operators. This competition also shows how the MPN market is ready to take off.
See More: The Era of Private Networks is Well Underway
The Future of MPNs and IoT
In the movie Minority Report, a car self-assembles and drives off the production line with Tom Cruise inside it. While MPNs cannot supply flat-packed movie stars, they support exciting innovations that could make self-assembly possible. Through implementing a mix of private, public, hybrid, and mobile private networks to track, assemble and activate manufacturing components, the potential for MPN-enabled IoT is vast.
However, discussion around eye-catching technologies such as drones and robotics often focuses on the result, the asset responding to the command or algorithm. Yet, the connectivity underpinning these use cases rarely gets the exposure it deserves. In supporting high-speed, secure and customizable connectivity, MPNs are the arteries facilitating and protecting future data flows, accelerating digitization and spurring economic growth.
In the UK, Vodafone has become the first telecoms operator to standardize a 5G MPN product, supporting manufacturing, transport and logistics, and energy innovation. Thanks to the dedicated local MPN, data is kept on-premise or on a device edge enabling private connectivity solutions. This is just one example of how MPNs can be a game-changer for businesses and are essential for the future of the fourth industrial revolution.
The future of the MPN will match the future of IoT, tied to the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to analyze data from connected devices. This will permeate smart manufacturing, healthcare, and even space technology, as seen in the development of small CubeSats satellites that can supply low-cost, low-latency connectivity to global communities.
And in just a few years, people may begin experimenting with 6G: 660 Terahertz communication speeds and the vast amount of data created by ever more connected societies. MPNs will be critical to enabling this connectivity; we’re just getting started.
How can MPNs shape industries, enhance IoT, and enable the industrial revolution? Let us know on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn. We’d love to hear from you!
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