Private 5G is the ‘missing link’ – lessons from Capgemini’s Industry 4.0 workbooks

Consultancy firms love to talk, don’t they; and digital transformation (also covering private 5G) is surely their favourite topic. It is just the way they are built – to chat and discuss, with a view to delegate and collaborate (‘co-create’), and maybe, hopefully, to solve. You can see it in their exhibition stands at trade shows, where they have nothing to show and everything to say: busy mezzanine lounges, all easy chairs and frothy lattes, stretch over the top of flashy booths, where practically everything is by their partners. But they sometimes say good stuff.

Capgemini has just published a blog post about ‘5G for airport operations’, and specifically about its work in Norway with airport operator Avinor and an unnamed local mobile operator to test private 5G for autonomous guided vehicles (AGV) to manage ‘tarmac inspections’ (presumably of aircraft). The Norwegian Communications Authority (Nkom) is offering local tranches of the 3.8-4.2 GHz band for enterprise usage, as in the UK and certain other European countries (and as per the EU proposal to harmonise across the bloc).

Fredrik Valo, director of telecom, media and technology at Capgemini Invent, the company system integrator division, writes: “A clear learning from the AGV tests is that the end-to-end 5G set-up must be carefully thought through; back-end integrations are vital to secure the low latency required, and once in place, private 5G outperforms other connectivity options.” He adds something about the importance of “hands-on experience”, presumably about the value of system integration, to fine-tune private 5G for stand-out results. 

He says: “It’s easy to assume that other radio alternatives such as public 4G/5G perform as well as private 5G. However, experience shows that these options often fall short of requirements.” Actually, there is not much else about the Avinor trials. But Valo goes on to offer his two cents on the bigger takeaways – about how to get private 5G projects humming quickly and efficiently, in order to drive digital change. “A question that many companies ask is [whether] 5G [is] really relevant for [their] businesses. The short and honest answer is, ‘yes’,” he writes.

“Looking beyond the technology and focusing on the possibilities a private 5G network enables, you can see significant operational and financial benefits. No matter if it is the future of aviation operations, offshore worker safety or implementation of AI in the factory production line, 5G is often the missing link in your journey towards digitalization and the connected future.” From here, Valo goes on to outline four lessons from Capgemini’s own Industry 4.0 workbooks, comprising the private 5G deployments it has helped with.

They might not be revolutionary, but they are often overlooked, he says. They go like this; all the quotes are his. (The original blog post is here.)

1 | Target quick returns 

“Be clear on what to achieve and what is required to pass each ‘gate’ before moving forward to the next step of the project. It’s easy to end up in a spiral of different use cases and technical requirements, paralysing the organisation and adding little value. The key is to identify and agree on the potential, quickly narrow down what to test and how, and [make sure] that value is proven early. Once this is achieved for one use case, the next becomes a priority exercise instead of another proof of concept.”

2 | Seek out support 

“What you set out to do has most likely been done before. In this project, Capgemini facilitated a visit to our Paris 5G lab, enabling hands-on experience of [the] network set up [and] use cases, and also meetings with industry experts [to share] experience, challenges, and solutions. This proved to be a great experience and facilitated a steep learning curve on 5G radio networks and use cases. In addition, it can be very helpful to contact other companies in the same (or similar) industry to share experiences.”

3 | Focus on basics 

“Multiple use cases [can be] enabled by private 5G – onsite coverage, drones, predictive maintenance, digital twins, AI applications. [But] it might be the basics that drive [the most] tangible benefits with little effort. One great example [in airports] is replacing old, wired connections with 5G. Various sensors, cameras, and technical equipment… [are] often dependent on wired connectivity, installed many years ago. Substituting old wire across and around the tarmac, and in the airport itself, with 5G [can] save substantial time and money, compared to installing new cables.”

4 | Prioritise smaller jobs 

“Once the pre-study is completed, the work starts for real. Knowing what use cases to prioritise, how they relate to network requirements, and what the benefits are, will help set the direction and focus needed to succeed over time… It is vital to divide [big projects] in smaller, prioritised deliveries. This is not only a technology requirement; breaking down a big project into manageable chunks is easier for the workforce and organisation [and other stakeholders], and facilitates the transition to new ways of working.”