Submitted via IRC for chromas
Private LTE Networks Headed to the Slammer? GTL to Test CBRS
GTL, one of the two big US telecommunications providers to inmates in prisons, is looking to test voice and video applications on a private LTE network running in 3.5GHz CBRS spectrum.
Company officials declined to answer questions on the project from Light Reading. An FCC application indicates GTL will test equipment from Nokia in a rural residential area outside of Tucson, Ariz.
GTL's filing provides further evidence of a growing interest in private wireless networks, specifically those using cellular technologies and not WiFi. Such networks operate outside of commercial wireless offerings from the likes of AT&T and Verizon, and can support a wide variety of applications, from employee communications to IoT monitoring to autonomous robots. Customers for such networks could potentially span the gamut, from massive corporations like Ford and Charter Communications to government agencies such as the Department of Energy.
Indeed, according to a survey of more than 300 enterprises conducted by Nemertes Research and highlighted by cellular equipment vendor ip.access, more than 86% of organizations currently use WiFi technology for their private networks but 25% are "actively looking at switching to other technologies" over concerns about cost, reliability, security and performance.
Moreover, research firm SNS Telecom predicted spending on LTE and 5G private networks would reach $4.7 billion annually by the end of 2020, growing to $8 billion by the end of 2023.
Already, Nokia's CTO has mused that the private wireless network opportunity could eventually be twice as large as the market for commercial cellular networks.
Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 07 2019, @03:42PM
Acronyms Anonymous.
Disclaimer: despite my name I am in no way related to this organization.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Thursday November 07 2019, @04:32PM
Isn't that like having private roads on public land?
Then let's charge them enough rent to pay down the "debt".
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Interesting) by hwertz on Thursday November 07 2019, @05:56PM (1 child)
I wouldn't bother if I were them. Wait for wifi6 (802.11ax) and save the massive costs the private LTE system would cost.
Wifi is actually pretty terrible from a technical standpoint; current wifi standards have MUCH higher speeds, but the same basic channel access methods that were defined over 25 years ago. Even then, the design was for lowest cost and complexity, not for performance. Devices simply see if they think something is transmitting on the channel, and if it thinks it's clear, starts transmitting. So a channel with 1 user works fine; a channel with a few users but they are close together works well enough. Any other circumstance, some of the users can't "see" each other (hidden channel problem), the more usage on the channel the more they transmit over each other (collissions) and the lower amount of speed the data channel can carry.
Solutions? LTE is in fact one. But, wifi 6 (802.11ax) is also speced to at least double current speeds (using existing wifi radio speeds) simply by having the access point coordinate channel access much more; if nothings happening, it runs "random access" and devices proceed as they do now; if devices indicate they have traffic to send, the access point coordinates their channel access so they don't transmit over each other. Double the speed, and it can give devices that need low delay low delay access.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Friday November 08 2019, @03:19AM
Naah, use 5G, since the tinfoil hatters claim it's going to kill us all (and our mums too) it's the perfect cellular network to use on convicted criminals.