Netherlands-based transport and logistics firm KLG Europe has been testing private 5G on automated guided vehicles (AGVs) in a distribution centre with mobile operator KPN, as the latter fills-out commercial hardware facets of its so-called ‘KPN Campus’ private 4G/5G offer for large enterprises in the country. KPN put out a blog post to say the tests have been successful, and to suggest KLG Europe is ready to roll with its new edge-5G setup.
The notice, in Dutch (with Dutch video, too), said KPN’s public network has been combined in some fashion with an all-edge radio network (RAN), core network, and edge compute arrangement. KPN stated: “Our 5G network has been combined with… edge computing. By installing a local 5G gateway on site, part of the mobile 5G network runs locally at KLG Europe. KLG Europe thus benefits from high reliability, real-time response times, and all [its] data remains in-house.”
It added: “We offer customers the option to handle 5G data traffic completely locally. This has the advantage that data traffic does not have to be routed between data centers, which improves response times (latency). In addition, the data remains local and does not leave the customer location, which is in line with the increasingly strict security requirements.” There is no word on the network-vendor partner.
KPN put focus on speed characteristics, if not the kind of straighter “speed and connectivity” traits that tend to get discussed in consumer marketing circles when talking-up 5G technology. The test achieved a latency / response time of four milliseconds (“virtually real-time”), it said, noting as well that closer 21 milliseconds is “currently still common” for route traffic between AGVs and edge servers at the site.
KPN offers public 5G “throughout the Netherlands”, having started to roll-out in 2020. It will further upgrade to a ‘standalone’ version of the technology (5G SA) through 2025, following auction of the 3.5 GHz band in the country last year. The Dutch Authority for Digital Infrastructure (RDI) has made spectrum available to enterprises in the 3.6 GHz band – in two 50 megahertz portions in the 3400-3450 MHz and 3750-3800 MHz frequency ranges.
Licences are valid for up to17 years, until December 31, 2040. KPN said it will “also offer the local 5G gateway commercially to customers this year”, as part of its KPN Campus portfolio. KPN is pitching the KPN Campus proposition as a higher-performing “safe and reliable” local network infrastructure for mission and business-critical applications. It cited sundry industrial sectors, plus logistics and healthcare, as primary candidate venues.
Wouter Stammeijer, chief technology and digital officer at KPN, said: “We want to remain at the forefront of 5G and relevant 5G applications that meet the wishes of customers. Enterprises have different requirements in terms of safe, efficient and fast work and we can meet them with 5G solutions. That is why we are now testing the latest technologies and edge functionalities as an extension of our existing 5G network, making new applications possible.”
