A compact 5G Non-Public Network

Abstract

5G is aimed to play a key role in the digital transformation of the smart manufacturing industry. 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has introduced technical features for Non-Public Networks (NPN), allowing highly flexible and dedicated 5G deployments for Industry 4.0 applications. This paper presents insights into the main challenges of 5G NPNs and how we created a portable and compact 5G NPN solution. Our contribution is twofold: (i) we have identified the main concepts for the NPN and designed its architecture; (ii) we have implemented and validated it. This NPN can operate simply with mains electricity input, independently from the public network and public services of the MNO. Such a solution can be an excellent candidate for research purposes due to the very easy deployment, but it is also suitable for commercial, industrial usage.