In-Building VOICE Call using Private Network

Reliable voice calls (e-911) and connectivity are crucial in emergency situations such as fire, theft, and AMBER alerts. Mobile Network Operator (MNO) base stations can provide outdoor connectivity and voice call options in a smooth and seamless manner. However, most outdoor base station’s signals cannot penetrate well indoors due to e-glass and low penetration of 5G (mid and high) frequencies. Since most users are typically indoors, the alternative solution is Wi-Fi, which provides a strong signal footprint indoors. Therefore, the operators collaborated with Wi-Fi vendors to make the cellular VOICE call i.e., Wi-Fi calling. In places like universities, healthcare, and shopping malls, there is a need for dense deployment of Wi-Fi APs, leading to more contention and collision on the unlicensed spectrum medium. Such dense deployments of Wi-Fi APs eventually increase latency and packet drop, leading to poor voice call quality. The entry and rise of private network deployment for mission-critical applications expands the cellular technology indoors. Through private networks, MNOs users can make VOICE call, when outdoor MNO base stations and indoor Wi-Fi signals are poor. Recently, service providers have started using private network infrastructure to route cellular traffic, such as data and VOICE, for their users; this is called Neutral Host (NH). In this work, we compare the VOICE quality on four different technologies (MNO, Wi-Fi, CBRS, and NH) in terms of Mean Score Value, Latency, and Packet Drop.