Federated Wireless provided Cal Poly with its Neutral Host 2.0 solution
California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, also known as Cal Poly, has expanded its private wireless network and added new neutral host capabilities, allowing it to support T-Mobile US customers. The network, deployed in partnership with Federated Wireless, leverages the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band.
According to the university, the expanded network, thanks to its combination of CBRS spectrum and now T-Mobile’s service, will improve connectivity and safety on campus, as well as “unlock new opportunities for academic innovation” across several industries including construction, agriculture and energy.
“The wireless communications world is on the edge of exciting and beneficial advancements, and the innovative capabilities around private 5G, Wi-Fi 6E, and commercial 4G/5G are expansive,” said Bill Britton, Cal Poly’s vice president for IT services and CIO. “Through our partnership with experts in the 5G space, the Cal Poly 5G Innovation Lab will answer questions about reducing wireless access points, providing wireless coverage in hard-to-reach areas, keeping secure transactions on a private network, designing and operating digital twins, and improving remote search and rescue as just a few of the examples to be explored.”
Federated Wireless provided its Neutral Host 2.0 solution, which leverages AWS Snowball Edge and AWS Snowcone services to support a multi-use private wireless network. “The multi-use network simultaneously supports private connectivity services provided by the university and connectivity for T-Mobile subscribers,” said Federated Wireless. The company added that the converged network delivers key advancements such as enhanced connectivity and safety, unmetered broadband streaming and 5G innovation.
Further, the company claimed that unlike traditional distributed antenna system (DAS) models for indoor coverage, which is based on unshared small cell systems, its neutral host model proposes a single shared infrastructure.
“This CBRS converged private wireless network with neutral host capability demonstrates the wireless network of the future, and the power that a shared spectrum and open ecosystem model brings to higher education and private enterprise,” said Iyad Tarazi, CEO of Federated Wireless. “It is an important milestone in public and private network interoperability.”
The CBRS neutral host solution at Cal Poly will first be implemented at the university’s remote hiking areas and inside the new William and Linda Frost Center for Research and Innovation.
