Missouri-based technology services provider World Wide Technology (WWT) has opened a neutral host and private networks lab at its Advanced Technology Center (ATC) in St. Louis. It has teamed up with CBRS spectrum access and system provider Federated Wireless, plus semiconductor vendor Intel, on the project.
The new lab, called ‘Neutral Host Network Lab’, is for customers and partners to test private wireless and neutral host use cases. It leverages a joint private wireless solution built on the Federated Wireless cloud platform and Intel compute componentry. Intel trailed the demo site in its pre-MWC roundup last week.
It is geared for enterprises, mobile operators, equipment manufacturers, and other providers in the space. The trio said “several tier-one and tier-two” mobile service providers are already using the facility. They declared it the only testing environment in the US “for their specific use cases”. Federated Wireless called neutral host networks a “killer app for private wireless”.
A statement said: “The lab will be used to help partners validate equipment and processes against performance requirements to ensure readiness for deployment in their private networks.” Specifically, it showcases Federated Wireless’ so-called Neutral Host 2.0 system, pegged to CBRS spectrum, and Intel’s “cloud-to-edge” Xeon line of processors, ethernet adapters and software tools.
Federated Wireless’ Neutral Host 2.0 solution is compatible with “virtually all types of network hardware”. The facility offers a “managed, multi-vendor environment for development and testing of enterprise-grade solutions”. WWT has composed a “suite of enterprise use-case solutions” on top of these system-tools.
It stated: “These include virtualized packet core and neutral host, as well as specialized use-case solutions such as video security, machine vision, and cybersecurity.” World Wide Technology has an annual revenue of $17 billion. Besides enterprise networks, it offers consultancy and integration services for cloud computing, computer security, data analytics, and artificial intelligence.
Brannon Holliger, practice lead for private cellular at WWT, said: “[This] facility enables our service provider and enterprise partners to explore the advantages of private wireless networks in general and neutral host solutions in particular. Our state-of-the-art ATC provides the flexible lab space required to rigorously evaluate multiple commercial-grade private wireless and neutral host deployments across a dynamic partner ecosystem.”
Kurt Schaubach, chief technology officer at Federated Wireless, said: “Neutral Host 2.0 is a killer app for private wireless. The solution is triple-win, helping relieve burdensome workloads for MNOs, removing the need for costly DAS deployments for enterprises, and delivering much more coverage and capacity than traditional and costly band-aids to the issue of ubiquitous connectivity.”
Check out the podcast interview with Obinna Egonu of WWT here, discussing the intersection of 5G and cloud computing, and what it means for new enterprise use cases and service provider models.
