5G Enterprise RAN (Radio Access Network) for buildings and venues

Corning’s 5G small cell platform technology, the 5G Enterprise Radio Access Network (Enterprise RAN), is an easy to install system that provides the 5G services enterprises and venue owners are demanding. The 5G Enterprise RAN builds upon our decade of experience improving indoor cellular services. It upholds the same high visual standards as the LTE product family to ensure facilities managers won’t have aesthetic concerns with adding 5G to the buildings they manage.

The 5G Enterprise RAN Solution is a simple system composed of:

• Central Unit (CU) – software that manages all the 5G radios attached to it, connections to the mobile core, and cooperation with local LTE systems that create the 5G services with it. This CU software is hosted onsite in an enterprise data center server or in an operator provided edge compute server.
• Radio Nodes – compact radios that either mount on the ceilings and/or walls of enterprises to provide the necessary 5G services coverage for subscribers. The Radio Nodes are connected via 10Gig Ethernet using Corning’s ActiFi composite cabling (copper power & optical data plane). The copper conductors are powered from a Remote Power shelf in the IDF and the optical data plane supports the demands of 5G device connections that operate faster than legacy copper Ethernet can carry.

Wireless enterprise network upgrades can be a hassle for building owners and IT managers. The 5G Enterprise RAN is designed for deployment in enterprises in usages ranging from hotspot areas to full blanket coverage. From carpeted floor commercial and enterprise space, to large venues, and through manufacturing shop floors, the 5G Enterprise RAN can deliver the performance demanded by people and systems in each application.

In carpeted floor enterprise applications, a 5G Enterprise RAN installation has three steps:

1. Develop design and installation plans for system.
2. Install the CU software and radio nodes/cabling adjacent to the existing Corning cellular system.
3. Upgrade and activate existing Corning cellular system to support interconnect to new 5G Enterprise RAN.