Let's now turn our attention to a couple of additional buzzwords that some of you may have already heard of. Private networks and industrial IoT. Here we will first learn about what a private networks are. What are some of their benefits on top of the regular cellular networks that we see around us? Then we'll turn our attention and learn about what industrial IoT is. Then in the end we'll put all three factors together, meaning 5G, private networks, and industrial IoT and see what are some of the unique and unprecedented use cases that this triple combination is poise to enable. What are private networks after all? They are a dedicated networks that are designed and deployed for the use of a single enterprise for their specific operational requirements. This is in direct contrast to the networks that our phones happen to use every day, which in this spotlights are called public networks. There are certain key differences between private and public networks that are set private networks apart. There are many, but let's at least look at some of the important ones. The purpose of a public network is to provide a wide array of services to all the subscribers that may be present in that city. Usually those subscribers would be scattered all across the city in multiple blocks, in multiple tall buildings, etc. No matter where the subscribers are or what applications they're running, for example, it may be a Cloud gaming, a high-definition video streaming, or just regular voice and video calls. For all those purposes, you have in public domain a common network. On the other hand, a private network will prioritize specific services. The focus would be to provide those services to devices of a specific customer. Furthermore, those devices would mostly be congregated rather in a relatively small area. There are three threads to be looked at: specific services, a specific customer, and a specific area. All of these are in direct contrast with the mission of the public network which is to provide a common connectivity platform. That is what sets private networks apart because they are meant for a specific purpose, for a specific customer, and a specific area. We can leverage many other aspects of our network design and network deployment to our advantage in a private network. This is how. A public network would require literally dozens of base station to cover the city, which it is expected to provide a service for. On the other hand, depending upon the area to be covered in the private network, it would require a very few base stations. As we have previously seen during our millimeter wave discussion towards the end of the module, we saw real-life examples of millimeter wave networks being designed and deployed. There was, for example, a factory floor at 5,000 square foot area that was covered satisfactorily with just three base stations. On the other hand, one can only guess and just how much area of a city, three base stations can cover. You are definitely going to need more base stations. That is one key difference between public and private networks in that because you have a small area to be covered, private networks only require very few base stations. Because public networks are required to cover a wider variety of topologies, the network design is largely influenced by extraneous factors such as buildings, roads, hills, etc. For example, if your theoretical network design tells you that at this point, if you build a gen Orbi, it will provide the most optimal coverage, good. But if that point happens to be, let's say in the middle of the road or in the middle of a lake, you obviously cannot build a base station at that point, so you're going to have to compromise a little in the public network. However because in a private network, the topology can be carefully controlled and managed, the network design can be specifically tailored for the area of interest. Because public networks operate along with other public networks in order to avoid or mitigate at least the interference coming between different networks, public networks mostly operate on licensed spectrum. Whereas because private networks operate in limited and somewhat isolated areas in certain cases, their spectrum doesn't have to be licensed. It can be shared or at the other end, it can also be unlicensed. That is another benefit, that private networks have. Inter-operability is an interesting point in that a public network subscriber cannot leverage service from a private network. Whereas a subscriber of a private network, depending upon the agreements between the private network provider and the public network provider, may be able to leverage service from not only the private network, but also from the public network so that inter-operability is another point to be kept in mind regarding private network. One simpler way to understand that is your home Wi-Fi. Only you know the password for your home Wi-Fi connection. Only you can access that network, but an open network, let's say an airport or a cafe, pretty much anybody can access that network because it is an open network. You can access both the networks, but somebody who can ask someone else who can access the cafe network can't necessarily access your home network because, in that sense, it is your private Wi-Fi network. Use cases of public network as we may have already alluded to are urban cellular networks, all the networks we see around us, and can access on our phones or tablets are public networks. Whereas some of the important use cases of private networks are industries, warehouses, or corporate campuses wherein they have some specific requirements with respect to performance in terms of latency, throughput, reliability. Requirements that cannot be satisfactorily and reliably be met by using a public network in order to meet and exceed those expectations, private networks can be considered.
