Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1528798
66 SMT007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2024 on the applications being run on the network. LTE cellular communications use a channel bandwidth of 20 MHz. With "Carrier Aggre- gation" technology, up to 4 channels can be aggregated for an effective channel bandwidth of 80 MHz. Table 1 shows the typical and max- imum downlink and uplink data rates achiev- able per single CBRS LTE radio. Private Cellular vs. Wi-Fi As shown in Figure 3, private cellular net- works deliver the performance of a 4G LTE or 5G networks with the simplicity of deploy- ment of Wi-Fi. e benefits of private cellular over Wi-Fi include: • Enhanced security. Unlike with most Wi-Fi Access Points (Wi-Fi 5 standard and below) where only a password is required to access a Wi-Fi AP, cellular network access is SIM-card based. Without an authorized physical SIM card or an e-SIM from the enterprise IT department, a device cannot get access to the network. • End-to-end encryption. In the case of private cellular, not only is data secured behind the enterprise firewall, but data in motion and the data at rest is end-to-end encrypted providing a higher layer of secu- rity to sensitive production, personnel, or financial data. • Capacity and coverage. Cellular net- works operating in the CBRS band have 2X the data capacity of 802.11a Wi-Fi AP and provide between 2X and 4X wider coverage than Wi-Fi. e wider cover- age results from the higher allowed trans- mit power of the cellular radio by the FCC compared to Wi-Fi AP and also the higher receive sensitivity of the cellular radio. • Quality of service. QoS is very critical for many enterprise and manufacturing applications. In the case of a Wi-Fi AP the available bandwidth is shared evenly with all devices connecting to the access point. As the number of devices increases, the QoS for any individual device or applica- tion deteriorates. In the case of cellular, the QoS can be fixed or guaranteed for critical devices or critical applications thus ensuring no deterioration in perfor- mance. • Mobility. Cellular networks are designed from the ground up for mobility; hand- off between one radio to the next occurs seamlessly and is initiated by the network. While Wi-Fi 6 is more "cellular-like" in how it handles hand-offs, in previous gen- erations of Wi-Fi the connection with one AP was dropped before connecting to another AP—which is not acceptable for latency-sensitive robotics applications in distribution centers and manufacturing. • Scalability and indoor/outdoor cover- age. Wi-Fi works well indoors in office environments but is not suitable for out- doors or in indoor manufacturing environ- ments. Cellular, on the other hand, works well both indoors and outdoors as there are different transmit standards for indoor versus outdoor cellular radios. Further- more, cellular technology is scalable so the network can grow as the needs of an enter- prise grow. Table 1: Data speeds versus channel bandwidth for various network configurations