Network in a box is a revolutionary product for realizing the potential of 5G, especially delivering resilient network connectivity, anytime, anywhere!

A portable, full-fledged wireless networking solution, NIB comes pre-configured, assembled, and set up, ready to use. It enables comprehensive management and operations of networks and has been successfully deployed globally in commercial, government, and private networks. NIB ensures high operational availability through continuous network coverage in a compact, portable form.

We spoke about NIB’s functionality and benefits in the last two blogs. In the last of our three- blog series, we shall focus on NIB’s current diverse use cases, with more in the roadmap.

Four Prominent Use Cases of 5G Network in a Box

An ideal solution to build on-demand networks, network in a box is fast emerging as a critical ally for 5G. The driving 5G technologies currently being developed are shaped by use cases embracing the service-specific demands from a various industry verticals and domains. An all-in-one solution that integrates a core network and base station units like remote radio head and baseband units into a compact portable box, the 5G NIB is advantageous for the following use cases.

More specifically, it is the ideal product for the following use cases:

Testing & Simulation

No doubt, technology advances like 5G will unlock a huge opportunity to accelerate innovation across all industries. However, testing its reliability and effectiveness is crucial for an invention to be impactful. And so is its time-to-market. As a result, the pressure is to be the first to market with safe, reliable, and affordable 5G products and solutions that deliver the highest-level Quality of Service (QoS). Network in a box is the cutting-edge product that brings together 5G’s vital standards-based technologies, standalone 5G core, and Radio Access Network (RAN), crucial to testing and validating the 5G solutions for market-readiness. The chief goal of the testing phase is to ensure that end products deliver a consistent world-class user experience. Network in a Box helps identify gaps, if any, in the 5G products and solutions’ quality, providing more predictable and faster development timelines and reducing overall developmental costs. To achieve this, NIB supports a combination of testing and verification strategies that are broadly divided into two categories of testing and simulation bandwidths.

• Standard Bandwidth/ Throughput (20MHz/200 Mbps): with a low power/ range – (10dbM / 20 feet), this bandwidth is ideal for Portable Labs, RAN/Core testing, standards-based Interoperability testing, and Handover testing
• High Bandwidth/ Throughput (100 MHz / 1 Gbps): this bandwidth is ideal for high throughput testing like Link Budget Analysis, MIMO testing, Carrier Aggregation, and Performance testing

Enterprise 5G

Characterized by enhanced control, flexibility, customized security and privacy, low latency, improved Quality of Service (QoS), and an ability to leverage network slicing, private 5G is emerging as a preferred choice among many businesses worldwide. There is also a growing call for customized wireless communications in industries, public safety, and other domains. Moreover, NIB can also double up as a powerful Wi-Fi hotspot, which is ideal for organizations that require quick access to remote operations. All these factors, and more, are escalating the need for the networks to be more organized, expandable, integrated, and available on-demand. The 5G NIB is a powerful all-in-one integrated solution that has been successfully deployed in private networks globally. It provides high operational availability through continued network coverage. Also, NIB, with its compact size, portable form, limited hardware, and software requirement, can significantly save capital and operation expenditure in an enterprise mobile network. Moreover, company-specific services are the primary factors determining the network data load in enterprise setups. NIB offers portability, customizability, security, and cost-efficiency to maintain the private network by minimizing the dependence on public network infrastructure.

Natural Disasters & Emergency Scenarios

NIB can be used in diverse scenarios, including PPPDR (Public Protection and Disaster Relief). When a natural calamity like an earthquake or tsunami destroys the regular mobile network infrastructure, wireless connectivity in the damaged area can be quickly restored by simply plugging in NIB. It can be deployed in challenging environments like a battlefield or supporting operations around a public safety emergency where quality and timing are critical factors. Also, there is no room for failure as lives depend on reliable operation, and users are looking for ease of use and predictable performance. NIB can be easily deployed on land, air, or sea and helps establish communication between relief workers and rescue staff in disaster scenarios by deploying an emergency network within minutes. It works equally well in challenging and harsh environments like deserts, mountains, and marine areas where it’s difficult to deploy legacy network infrastructures.

Tactical Networks

NIB is an all-in-one solution ready to be deployed anytime, anywhere on-demand. Timely and secure connectivity is critical in military missions, and utilizing public network infrastructures in such scenarios can compromise these significantly. The network in a box can conveniently address the challenges of building tactical networks because of its compact and easily portable form factor, coupled with its high-performing core network and RAN.

Final Thoughts

5G New Radio (NR) is being rolled out globally, heralding a gigantic leap towards an entirely digitized society. 5G will resiliently help connect everything into the global coverage and make deep inroads to minimize the digital divide. The networks will need to be organized, scalable, flexible, and integrated into an on-demand model to achieve this. Network-in-a-box, a disruptive and futuristic solution, is proving an ideal product to provide on-demand connectivity in scenarios like 5G testing & simulation, Private 5G, disaster scenarios, intermittent events, challenging terrains and circumstances, etc.

Network Flexibility is the prominent feature enabled for NIB use cases characterized by easy deployment, technological diversity, and interoperability with third-party entities. These help NIB fulfill the 5G requirements. In times to come, 5G enabling technologies will further strengthen the technological capabilities of NIB to unlock on-demand services to more application scenarios effectively.

Amantya’s Network in a Box

Amantya’s Network in a Box solution is an all-in-one ready-to-deploy solution. It comes pre-integrated with a fully-functional  5G Core (5G SA Core)  and high-performing RAN. The compact and portable NIB is 3GPP standards-compliant and has an entire 5G network up and running quickly. Also, it can integrate with any standards-compliant third-party solution with minimal configuration efforts. It is a robust solution with an intuitive GUI-based interface and supports multiple bands using software-defined radio. Amantya’s NIB’s standards interface enables easy integration with commercial UEs.

Keen to know more about Amantya’s Network in a Box and how it can help your business operations? Get in touch at connect@amantyatech.com

Our team would be happy to assist you.