Non-Public networks for mission/business critical use cases in a 5G scenario

The specific characteristics of 5G technology make it extremely suitable to support a multitude of mission/business critical use cases characterized by stringent and differentiated network requirements, ranging from high throughput to ubiquitous coverage, to very low latency, not forgetting security and privacy. Legacy solutions based primarily on Wi-Fi systems or 5G commercial networks are not able to meet all requirements; therefore, the solution could be the use of Non-Public Networks (NPN) that can be modelled on the needs of the user. In Europe, many verticals have installed NPN networks in the 3.8-4.2 GHz band, recently allocated to IMT services. Other solutions that allow to obtain the performance required by these use cases involve higher frequency fields, such as the 26 GHz band, or new technologies such as cell-free systems which can be deployed to cover indoor environments with a very high traffic density using millimetre waves (mmW) frequencies. In this work we present an analysis based on simulation and aimed at verifying the feasibility of providing ubiquitous coverage with specific requirements in different sections of a hospital department (assumed as a typical mission critical scenario), using low power 3.8-4.2 GHz band base stations.