Nokia is addressing the industrial “internet of things” market by tailoring its cloud packet core solution for private LTE networks. The company said that private LTE networks are becoming a preferred way for transportation and energy companies to deliver mission-critical services. Valued at less than $1 billion today, the market for private LTE networks is expected to grow 32% a year between now and 2020, according to Nokia.
Machine-type communications are increasingly important to Nokia’s enterprise customers. The company said its cloud packet core solution can support services such as train control and monitoring of oil and gas processing facilities. The company said it also can support high-bandwidth applications like real-time video and user applications such as mobile ticketing for rail passengers. In addition to the transportation and energy industries, Nokia is targeting government entities and smaller operators with its new solution.
The energy industry is a key vertical for Nokia’s IoT solutions. The company said utilities can use private LTE networks to establish field area networks to provide high-speed data links to connect sensors, substations, facilities, intelligent electronic devices and other grid components.
Nokia said its cloud packet core solution can support 50,000 simultaneous access users/devices and 100 eNodeBs. Its packet core portfolio can be deployed as hardware-optimized platforms or cloud-native virtualized network functions.
Enterprises and government entities that deploy private LTE networks want interoperability with service provider networks, according to Mike Sapien, principal analyst for enterprise services at Ovum. Sapien said he sees many large enterprises taking on the role of service provider for their employees.
“I see many large customers acting as service providers for internal groups that would also see the opportunity to create this private network, with the key requirement of interconnecting with other service providers (wireless networks, applications, cloud providers) and larger operators being enabled with this solution,” Sapien said.
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