Private 5G promises a new era in smart factories, smart supply chains, and hyper-connected enterprises.
But where are we in terms of private 5G adoption? And is it getting easier to make that 5G future a reality?
Jonathan Davidson, Cisco’s EVP and general manager for the Mass-scale Infrastructure Group, shared his thoughts on private 5G — its present, its future, and how Cisco is spurring its adoption.
Q. Thank you, Jonathan! We’ve been talking a lot in recent years about the amazing promise of private 5G, in everything from smart factories to renewable energy. How would you characterize the current state of adoption across industries?
A. I think it’s still the early days for private 5G across the globe. But the good news is that countries like the UK, Japan, and Germany have already enabled enterprises to buy 5G spectrum or get access to allocated 5G spectrum. And we’re seeing interest across industry as they look to modernize business. There’s a real buzz about the potential for private 5G.
Q. Can you elaborate more on this modernization?
A. Many enterprises want to accelerate the digitalization of their business. We’ve seen how the cloud has transformed information technology (IT) in spectacular fashion. Transforming operational technology (OT) will be the next wave of productivity, and it will be just as profound as the transformation of wireless connectivity and IoT. This is just the beginning.
Q. Can 5G enable other tech trends, like the Internet of Things, to reach their promise?
A. Yes, and we’re super excited about the combination of mobile IoT and private 5G. Many of the initial use cases are high-value asset tracking. If you think about, say, helicopter or aircraft parts, you want to know where they are at any moment, and you want to know that they’re making their way to where they need to be. Or picture a massive warehouse where you need to find an asset quickly and get it on the right truck or the right airplane. So really, managing the whole supply chain is top of mind for us, tracking a device or a part or a product from where it’s manufactured to a boat at sea to a warehouse to an Amazon truck that delivers it to your house. Those are great use cases for private 5G. But there’s lots of others.
Q. Is 5G going to replace Wi-Fi?
A. No, we believe Wi-Fi and 4G/5G will coexist and complement each other. In fact, most enterprise customers don’t want to choose one technology over the other. They just want outcomes. This is where Cisco differentiates from the competition. Enterprises already have Wi-Fi, Security, and IT systems that work for them, hopefully supplied by Cisco, and if 5G is needed, it’s more practical to add it to what they already have than overhaul the network.
Q. Adopting 5G can be a complex process. How are we helping organizations in that regard?
A. Actually, this is the most important problem to solve. The best technology doesn’t always win, the most valued solution usually does. Fortunately, we have both. One of the biggest things that we’ve done to make 5G simple is to offer it as-a-service so the IT operations staff doesn’t have to learn very complex 5G technology. The other thing we have done is to integrate private 5G with existing enterprise systems. Imagine having to manage two different types of policies, one for Wi-Fi 6 radios and another for 5G. That’s a whole level of complexity that our enterprise customers don’t want to deal with. So, we provide a consistent offering so that applications, users, and things all have the same policy regardless of how they are connecting… wired, Wi-Fi, or 4G/5G. And that’s a huge benefit.
Q. When 5G is needed, what are some of the advantages of a private 5G network?
A. One advantage is scale. Most Wi-Fi radios are limited in range and sometimes it is costly to pull cabling to increase access points for coverage. So, typically for very large deployments, you’re going to need 5G for broader reach. If you wanted to cover, say, an entire military base, 5G would be really good for that kind of connectivity.
There has been a perception that 5G is an improvement over Wi-Fi in quality. But Wi-Fi 6 and 6E have mitigated much of that gap, in terms of bandwidth, speed, and latency. So, the advantages of private 5G come down to its broader reach — and also security.
Q. Cisco’s core purpose is powering an inclusive future for all. How does 5G fit into that larger message around connecting the world and creating new opportunities?
A. We’ve talked a lot about private 5G, but this is where our leadership in public 5G matters too. 5G brings much more capability and bandwidth to us… the average consumer. 5G is especially important to extend healthy connectivity to new locations, like rural areas, which may not have any connectivity at all. It is significant for urban areas too. Trenching fiber or cable is costly. With high bandwidth, 5G will bring the network closer to more users and deliver the digital experiences that have become critical to the world. This has tremendous implications for equality in education, the remote work force, healthcare, you name it. It is so exciting to see what Cisco is doing to create the Internet for the Future.
Q. Speaking of the Internet for the Future, our Silicon One chip, which has brought service providers and hyperscalers amazing capabilities and energy savings, is now powering some of our enterprise-grade switches. What impact will that have?
A. We have been deploying Cisco Silicon One in the carrier space and the hyperscaler space since 2019, and it makes sense for us to take our market leadership and add it to the enterprise portfolio for high-capacity 400G deployments. I think on the enterprise side, they often don’t ask which chip is inside, which box. They just want to make sure that they’ve got the value they need, at the price point they need, to get the outcomes they need, and meet their sustainability goals. With Cisco Silicon One, no one else comes close to our performance and power savings. Most importantly, the unique architecture gives Cisco the confidence to lead the industry for the next decade.
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