The business division of France-based mobile operator Orange is offering a hybrid public/private (‘private’) standalone 5G (SA) solution in its home country, combining simultaneous access to its public network with private network deployments for enterprises. It is the first time it has offered a dual enterprise 5G solution, it said.
The new “two-in-one solution” has been tested at Orange’s base in Arcueil, south of Paris; the firm said it variously mixes network slicing, edge computing, and local data ‘break-out’ (edge-based data analysis) across twin public/private 5G infrastructure. Orange is “actively investing in the construction” of hybrid 5G networks in France, it said; its two units have been “constantly innovating to continue to develop services and use [cases]”, it added.
The hybrid solution is being offered as a managed service to France-based enterprises by Orange Business. In the test setup in Arcueil, Orange used a router from Ericsson-owned Cradlepoint to connect to the two networks at the same time and direct data flows to the appropriate network according to predefined requirements of their carrier applications. The Cradlepoint router supports 5G SA and slicing, it noted.
The project hosted two use cases in two network slices, running on a laptop (“behind the router”): transmission of a video feed to the cloud on the public network to support a remote assistance use case, and an edge-based supervision application for an industrial process where all the data circulated on the private network. A statement said: “The separation of data flows is complete from the application on the terminal to the core network.”
Orange noted its public network uses 5G SA radio (RAN) networks from both Ericsson and Nokia, plus a 5G SA core network from Nokia, and signalling and routing from Oracle Communications; it said nothing of its private 5G SA vendors for the Arcueil extension. It cited applications to connect smartphones, tablets, IoT sensors and monitors, industrial equipment and machinery, human-machine interfaces, and robots and autonomous vehicles.
It suggested a smart port use-case, where the port authority commissions a private 5G network to cover its on-site operations, processes, and (permanent and contractor) staff, and makes use of the public 5G network at the same time to connect use cases beyond the port boundary. It listed transport applications on road, river, and rail. “All this while supporting critical activities… including welcoming the public… and activities in the port industrial zone,” it said.
Valérie Cussac, senior vice president of smart mobility services at Orange Business, said: “The evolution of existing networks towards a hybrid private model promises major benefits in terms of production optimization, improvement of the experience of actors in the field and technology management. Orange mobilises its dual expertise as operator and integrator to support its customers in their transformations.”
A statement said: “The solution… [combines] the advantages of a private network (performance, latency, security) and the support of existing operator infrastructures… Operated 100 percent by Orange, it allows, from a single network solution, a single SIM and a single radio coverage to cover both critical and office uses by guaranteeing isolation of flows and quality of service…, simultaneous access to the two networks… [for] improve[d] experience, [and]… transit and maintenance… of critical data… [and] low and stable latencies allowed by the local break-out.”
