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Explains
Making this decision doesn’t just save the water company money. It also helps it manage the impact of sewage spills on its reputation and relationships with local communities.
This example isn’t a vision of the future. It’s a real project executed by Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Solutions, which is working with the utility concerned to exploit the capabilities – speed, high bandwidth, security, reliability – of the fifth generation of mobile communications.
In doing so, Ericsson is helping the water company not only protect the environment and avoid fines but also prove its commitments to its customers.
Where can utilities make use of 5G?
Avoiding sewer spills is just one example of how wireless 5G technology can be deployed in the energy and water sectors.
“We have a really wide portfolio of different solutions that we market into specific industries,” explains Kelly Harrison, UK sales director – enterprise, at Ericsson. “When it comes to water and energy, most of the conversations we’re having around 4G and 5G actually cover a number of use cases.”
Substation connectivity is one area where electricity networks are using 5G. That’s because networks often have substations in areas or locations where the fixed connectivity capabilities are pretty poor. “As 4G and 5G connectivity has improved over the years, particularly in terms of latency and speed,” says Harrison, “we are starting to see much greater use of wireless wide area networks (WANs) built on 5G to connect substations.”
Not only do these systems offer improved performance, they are also flexible. For example, if a substation is decommissioned and replaced, it’s easy to move a wireless WAN router to the new facility. The alternative is to wait for a new fixed connection to be created.
Connecting fleets is another area where 5G and wireless networks come into their own. Managing fleet connectivity presents considerable challenges. Vehicles are constantly moving, crossing coverage zones, and operating in environments outside the direct control of the utility.
The result is fluctuating network conditions and limited opportunities for hands-on troubleshooting. To address these issues, fleets need persistent connections, strong upstream performance (for telemetry and video uploads, for example), robust security, and centralised management. Centralised cloud management [see case studies, below] enables IT teams to standardise configurations, monitor network health in real time, and resolve problems remotely, keeping vehicles operational.
Key applications that 5G connectivity underpins include telematics, cameras, surveillance, safety systems (such as technology protecting lone workers, alarm systems or body-worn cameras), real-time location data, and traffic management.
Harrison explains: “It’s essentially very similar technology to that used in substations, but it’s been robustly designed and certified for vehicles. It’s a much more ruggedised deployment because it needs to withstand dusty environments, extreme heat and vehicle vibrations. A lot of these engineers are in and out of vehicles, going to substations, or visiting homes, and moving between different locations.”
A good example of the technology at work is the connected vehicle system Ericsson provides for the AA. “It makes perfect sense for the AA because the van is effectively the engineer’s office. They’re rarely very far away from the vehicle, normally working within a 20- to 30-metre range, so that model works really well.”
Another area of growing importance is the use of wireless WAN to enable IoT applications. Here ruggedised equipment can also be invaluable. “We have wireless WAN-connected technology that can be left outside. It’s extremely robust and allows higher-capacity bandwidth solutions to be deployed.”
Keeping hackers at bay
With all these devices connected to the internet, it’s important to emphasise that security is vital. For example, the connection of remote devices such as sensors to the IoT opens up hundreds or even thousands of potential new attack vectors for hackers.
Harrison says: “We’ve recently seen the impact of major cyberattacks on large organisations in the UK. For these organisations, the consequences go far beyond lost revenue. Weak points within their networks can become gateways to much wider vulnerabilities, with potential financial, environmental or societal impacts.”
That risk is even greater for critical infrastructure. If a utility were successfully attacked, the disruption could affect thousands or even millions of consumers.
Ericsson operates a zero-trust network access system to bolster security. This means that instead of assuming that someone or something is safe because they're connected to the company's internal network, every user, device and connection is continuously verified and only given the access they actually need. “This is a major differentiator,” says Harrison. “Cybersecurity managers need confidence that the solutions protecting their organisations are robust and secure – not simply cheap, off-the-shelf products.”
Connecting fleets of vehicles also presents security concerns. It may mean there are multiple points of entry into the energy or water company’s central network, so it’s critical that security is kept up to date on the road.
If an emergency security patch is released, thousands of devices deployed in the field may need updating. “We can update every single device remotely within a one-hour window, ensuring the entire fleet remains secure and protected,” explains Ericsson senior system engineer Andy Sawyer.
Another technological differentiator from Ericsson for enterprise is the ability to run bandwidth-hungry edge computing applications. Edge computing enables computing and processing to take place locally rather than continuously sending raw data back to the cloud. This helps to avoid taking up space on networks with unnecessary streams of data. For example, the edge device can analyse a video stream in real time and only send data back when something relevant or unusual is detected.
Sawyer explains: “For example, instead of monitoring a video feed continuously, we could run a lightweight application on the device that detects when a particular event occurs – and only sends the relevant footage or alert back.”
A more advanced use case for edge computing is facial recognition software running directly on the router. The device is able to perform recognition locally and only send information when it detects a face of interest. Again, this means data does not constantly need to be sent to the cloud for processing and storage.
Finally, Ericsson also provides customers with dedicated network ‘slices’ over a public 5G network. Here, instead of building a separate network, a dedicated, controlled portion of public infrastructure is carved out for a specific application. This provides an uncrowded, high-priority lane with guaranteed bandwidth, latency and an end-to-end service level agreement – even when thousands of other devices are competing for capacity.
This slicing technology has many potential applications, particularly where connectivity is mission critical, such as for the emergency services. It’s also useful for very low latency applications, broadcasting, and industrial applications that need predictable performance without having to deploy a private 4G or 5G network.
“Cybersecurity managers need confidence that the solutions protecting their organisations are robust and secure – not simply cheap, off-the-shelf products.”
Kelly Harrison, UK sales director – enterprise, Ericsson
