Campus networks: CampusOS presents new guidelines for private 5G networks

The CampusOS consortium has published a guide to setting up and operating open, modular 5G campus networks. It is intended to guide organizations from identifying their own needs to a finished, private 5G network. At the same time, the open networks are intended to be an alternative to proprietary solutions from commercial providers. "We want to strengthen the digital sovereignty of companies in Germany and Europe," says project coordinator Slawomir Stanczak from the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute.

Technical and economic recommendations for 5G networks

The guidelines are aimed at decision-makers and technical specialists and are intended to guide them from the initial needs assessment in the company through to specific use cases. The authors then go on to address economic issues for the construction and operation of private 5G networks. These include product life cycles, value chains and skills. They also make technical recommendations for action. They point out possible paths from requirements to completion and refer to the choice of components and overarching functionality.

To create the guidelines, the project participants first developed a reference architecture for 5G campus networks. It was created on the basis of open, modular radio technologies with interoperable network components, taking into account Open RAN guidelines. The project partners also developed and tested blueprints and a building block catalog. They also analyzed value chains and operator models.

The CampusOS consortium comprises 22 members from industry and research. Under the leadership of the Heinrich Hertz Institute and the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems, they developed the guidelines for industry in a three-year project. They received funding of around 18 million euros from the Federal Ministry of Economics. After the end of the project, the Alliance for Open 5G Enterprise Networks (5G-ALOE) will continue the activities.

(sfe)