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AWS Private 5G

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Re: AWS Private 5G

#301
post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Digital Trends has a good article about this. You can read it here: https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/5g-vs-wi-fi/

I had the same question as the parent poster, so thanks for the link. Still, I'm confused. The article says that both WiFi 6 and 5G have similar theoretical max speeds. The main difference in the article seems to be that 5G operates on licensed spectrum. But if I understand correctly, this AWS service uses an unlicensed spectrum, so I'm still not sure why would I choose this over WiFi.

5G can handle more clients. WiFi (vaguely) slows down if a slow client connects to the same network as you, rather than a fast client using all the bandwidth.

Cellular ISPs also don't do routing the way wifi/wired ISPs do, so your IP address isn't tied to your physical location anymore. That wouldn't apply to private 5G so much though.

Re: AWS Private 5G

#302

It seems everyone here is confused. Here's the official FAQ, and it has 0 marketing garbage. https://aws.amazon.com/private5g/faqs/ There's no "telecom as a service", and there's no "5g can be split into multiple networks" nonsense. Amazon is just selling 5g access points and hardware (just like you would install wifi), and rents you a private connection for that hardware to AWS, and management of that network from A…

Spot on. This could be a game changer for us ($xB 100+ year old manufacturing company), where we are on a long, slow journey to digitize every piece of manufacturing (long and slow because manufacturing runs almost 24x7x365). Wifi, even the top enterprise systems, is not as resilient, cheap and quickly installed as we'd like. So now I can use 5G instead, and template and deploy it via the cloud? Yes, yes! We'll put t…

If you have problems with wifi resiliency I've got bad news for you about the wavelengths 5G uses.

Re: AWS Private 5G

#303
post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still kinda of confused... does that mean we could say get a simcard and make voice calls via this network? insert sim card into mobile phone android/iphone and make phone calls?

Unsure. But private LTE is already a thing where you can install your own towers onprem and configure your devices to connect to those towers instead of the ones of your standard AT&T provider (or whatever). I don't think there's any magic voodoo involved. I assume there's a way to configure 5G capable devices to connect to some local physical network you set up at a factory. I don't expect this is for telephony, but…

Faster and more robust for the use case than wifi, I imagine. The wifi spec isn't really optimized for large-scale mesh networks, while this is precisely the use-case 5g was developed for.

Re: AWS Private 5G

#304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spot on. This could be a game changer for us ($xB 100+ year old manufacturing company), where we are on a long, slow journey to digitize every piece of manufacturing (long and slow because manufacturing runs almost 24x7x365). Wifi, even the top enterprise systems, is not as resilient, cheap and quickly installed as we'd like. So now I can use 5G instead, and template and deploy it via the cloud? Yes, yes! We'll put t…

If you have problems with wifi resiliency I've got bad news for you about the wavelengths 5G uses.

I think GC might be talking about how the reliability of a large-scale mesh network using wifi isn't great (mostly because that's not what wifi was designed for), while this is literally what 5G was designed for.

Re: AWS Private 5G

#305

I think people are missing the point on what this is about. It's not about telecom at all. 5G is being looked at as an alternative to WiFi in certain environments - large retail stores, warehouses, ...etc. Basically anything where you need large scale WiFi mesh setups and the devices are controlled by a single entity.

Why though? What's the advantage of this over Wi-Fi?

Re: AWS Private 5G

#306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have problems with wifi resiliency I've got bad news for you about the wavelengths 5G uses.

I think GC might be talking about how the reliability of a large-scale mesh network using wifi isn't great (mostly because that's not what wifi was designed for), while this is literally what 5G was designed for.

I think 5G will replace wifi within next 10 years. We don't need WiFi anymore

Re: AWS Private 5G

#307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

to be a Telco at scale you need dedicated spectrum allocation which is seldom auctioned by the government at super high price so this is definitively what this is. it uses CBRS Spectrum which is dynamically allocated per site and the government can yank the CBRS spectrum you were temporary allocated at their discretion.

There are other comments here claiming Telco nonsense. What you say sounds reasonable though :)

This is the biggest threat to Telco since they've paid billions in Spectrum. The sites that earn the most will be converted to 5G however CBRS has limitations but it's not bad.

Re: AWS Private 5G

#308
post #248

It seems everyone here is confused. Here's the official FAQ, and it has 0 marketing garbage. https://aws.amazon.com/private5g/faqs/ There's no "telecom as a service", and there's no "5g can be split into multiple networks" nonsense. Amazon is just selling 5g access points and hardware (just like you would install wifi), and rents you a private connection for that hardware to AWS, and management of that network from A…

I'm still kinda of confused... does that mean we could say get a simcard and make voice calls via this network? insert sim card into mobile phone android/iphone and make phone calls?

They wouldn't allow voice call but yes you can do OTT apps like Signal , Whatsapp etc.

Re: AWS Private 5G

#309

It seems everyone here is confused. Here's the official FAQ, and it has 0 marketing garbage. https://aws.amazon.com/private5g/faqs/ There's no "telecom as a service", and there's no "5g can be split into multiple networks" nonsense. Amazon is just selling 5g access points and hardware (just like you would install wifi), and rents you a private connection for that hardware to AWS, and management of that network from A…

So it's kind of like a VLAN except it's strapped onto the 5G network of the various providers of 5G service via hotspots. Kind of like my 4G security system piggybacks on the network but isn't really callable by a regular old cell phone.

Re: AWS Private 5G

#310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think GC might be talking about how the reliability of a large-scale mesh network using wifi isn't great (mostly because that's not what wifi was designed for), while this is literally what 5G was designed for.

I think 5G will replace wifi within next 10 years. We don't need WiFi anymore

As somebody not very well-versed in this, a sincere question. Would something like 5g be able to replace a home intranet / network? Eg I have a personal media server that I stream to devices on my wifi--would this be able to work with 5g? From my perspective 5g can only replace internet access, yes? Devices that want to communicate with each other securely would still prefer to be connected over wifi or other personal network like Ethernet?
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