Powering a smart city's 5G network

A smart city in the north of the UK will be receiving a new 5G-centric network to accelerate digital services.

Mavenir and BAI Communications (BAI) will be launching the smart city project for Sunderland City Council, powered by Mavenir’s MAVedge solution.

BAI Communications will build a new 5G-centric network to increase adoption of transformative digital services for sectors including manufacturing and logistics, education and social care. The initial scope is for the deployment of a city-centre 5G private network which has the potential to evolve and become a neutral host network.

Neutral host models provide coverage and connectivity for smart city initiatives. They enable local councils and authorities to provide smart services and run numerous smart community applications in a more viable and cost-effective manner.

MAVedge comprises Mavenir’s Open vRAN and 5G Packet Core solutions to drive the next generation digital transformation of this smart city project, and to provide advanced 5G mobile connectivity to the local Sunderland community. It enables secure private networks to be distributed at the edge and powers a digital marketplace of applications and devices to create an efficient environment for diverse use cases for the enterprise and industry.

“Open RAN is a cost-effective solution which is based on open interfaces and will give us the ability to deploy in a very agile and flexible way,” said Brendan O’Reilly, Group Chief Technology Officer at BAI Communications.

The new network will help accelerate transformation within various sectors in Sunderland including:

• Smart homes: addressing health and social care requirements supporting vulnerable individuals living in their own homes, providing access to assistive technologies such as sensors and other IoT enabled devices.
• Digital skills and education: providing enhanced online and remote connectivity and distance learning across primary schools and secondary schools within the local authority.
• Manufacturing and Industry 4.0: improving supply chain agility for the automotive industry, including applications such as self-driving vehicles and autonomous heavy goods vehicles.
   

“We have long recognised the importance of technology in connecting people and realising opportunities to position Sunderland as a digital frontrunner. This new partnership between BAI Communications and Mavenir presents a fully scalable network architecture to unlock innovation and shape the future of our leading smart city,” said Liz St Louis, Assistant Director of Smart Cities at Sunderland City Council.

“Together, we are harnessing the power of technology and digital transformation for the benefit of residents, businesses and visitors to Sunderland. The new network will accelerate the emergence of more smart services including community applications, digital upskilling opportunities and efficiency drives for our advanced manufacturing clusters across the city.”

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