At MWC LA, Light Reading spoke with VP Parm Sandhu about NTT's approach to assisting enterprise customers in building, deploying and managing their private 5G networks.

Kelsey Ziser, Senior Editor

October 27, 2021

3 Min Read
NTT VP Parm Sandhu on the data and security draw of private 5G networks

LOS ANGELES – MWC LA – Near the top of the long list of reasons why enterprises are investing in private 5G networks are improved security and tighter control of their data, says NTT's Parm Sandhu.

"The primary drivers [of private 5G networks] are security, control, flexibility and access to the data. Those are really the key drivers from what we're seeing right now," says Sandhu, VP of enterprise 5G products and services for NTT Ltd.

Interest in private 5G networks is growing – a recent TECHnalysis Research study revealed that 53% of IT professionals surveyed are interested in deploying private 5G networks.

Here at the show, Light Reading spoke with Sandhu about NTT's approach to assisting enterprise customers in building, deploying and managing their private 5G networks. On the data management side, Sandhu says NTT's Smart X Platform provides customers with both data ingestion and orchestration capabilities "and then we can then help them synthesize that data and make business decisions for business outcomes. Through our platforms ... we can also then integrate with more standard data analytics with cloud-based solutions where the metadata can then be moved off-site, which is for data that is no longer high risk."

Figure 1: Parm Sandhu, VP of Enterprise 5G Products and Services for NTT Ltd. (Photo source: Kelsey Ziser) Parm Sandhu, VP of Enterprise 5G Products and Services for NTT Ltd.
(Photo source: Kelsey Ziser)

In addition to more options for data management and analytics, private 5G networks provide enterprises with the ability to "customize a security need," says Sandhu.

"The other big concern for our customers is security," he says. "With more and more devices now connecting to the network … they're looking for more secure connectivity solutions. So 5G, inherently with encryption, with built-in control, and with SIM-based security is what they want."

NTT SIM provides customers with the ability to connect their devices to their private 5G network but also access the "macro" 5G network in instances where a connected vehicle is roaming, explains Sandhu.

Tracking AGVs (autonomous guided vehicles) with consistent Wi-Fi connectivity is a challenge for many manufacturing and industrial customers, he adds. In fact, Germany's Cologne Bonn Airport teamed up with NTT in May to launch a private 5G network across the airport's 1,000 hectares, or about 2,500 acres, to "determine the exact location of devices and people, to transport luggage on self-driving vehicles, and to use autonomous robots to secure the site, as well as to provide intelligent services for the logistics hubs," according to a joint statement by NTT and the airport. "In contrast to a so-called dual-slice campus network, setting up a completely private network guarantees stable processes with low levels of downtime and makes it possible to have an individually tailored operational and security strategy."

The airport was granted a license for the project by the Federal Network Agency for spectrum with frequencies of between 3.7GHz and 3.8 GHz.

Finally, ensuring worker safety with technology such as computer vision is another use case of great interest to enterprises deploying private 5G networks, says Sandhu.

"With all this automation, [enterprises] need to address things like worker safety. If somebody's in a dangerous situation, we can shut down the crane, for example … monitoring workers' temperature, air quality or things like that," says Sandhu. In the case of a large mining customer, Sandhu says its private network makes it easier to use tools such as computer vision to monitor worker safety. "If someone is operating recklessly or not wearing their hard hat, machine vision can detect and alert someone on that," he says.

— Kelsey Kusterer Ziser, Conference Producer & Contributing Writer, Light Reading

About the Author(s)

Kelsey Ziser

Senior Editor, Light Reading

Kelsey is a senior editor at Light Reading, co-host of the Light Reading podcast, and host of the "What's the story?" podcast.

Her interest in the telecom world started with a PR position at Connect2 Communications, which led to a communications role at the FREEDM Systems Center, a smart grid research lab at N.C. State University. There, she orchestrated their webinar program across college campuses and covered research projects such as the center's smart solid-state transformer.

Kelsey enjoys reading four (or 12) books at once, watching movies about space travel, crafting and (hoarding) houseplants.

Kelsey is based in Raleigh, N.C.

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