Private network meets mobile broadband demand at Italian science park

To improve services for its resident enterprises, AREA Science Park in Italy has installed an innovative private mobile network based on Athonet’s compact mobile gateway and Nokia Siemens Networks advanced base station. Users enjoy faster access, wider coverage and lower costs. This breakthrough opens the way for applications in public safety, airports, healthcare facilities, campus environments, industrial automation, oil/gas fields etc.

“AREA Science Park’s communication needs have been the ideal testing ground for this technology implemented by Athonet and Nokia Siemens Networks. And this test has been passed brilliantly."

Giancarlo Michellone,
president of AREA Science Park

One of Italy’s leading science and technology campuses, AREA Science Park of Trieste, has recognized an opportunity to improve services to its nearly 100 resident companies and create a new source of revenue by implementing its own private mobile network.

The network solves a series of communications challenges. Not only did some areas within the park suffer from a lack of network coverage by Italy’s public communications service providers (CSP), but the growing use of smartphones and mobile broadband dongles by the 2,400 or so workers on the campus was creating congestion and slow data connections.

Fortunately, one of the technology companies, called Athonet, operating on the park could offer part of a potential solution in the form of a compact mobile gateway called PRIMO. Using the Athonet gateway and integrating it with a Nokia Siemens Networks Flexi Multiradio Base Station, Nokia Siemens Networks’ local channel partner Imet was able to implement a secure private network covering a large part of the science park.

Challenges

  • Lack of coverage, particularly indoor coverage, from public mobile networks
  • Users suffered congestion and delays when accessing mobile broadband on public mobile networks

Compact, low cost mobile gateway

The PRIMO gateway contains the core network functions needed to manage data calls locally, routing IP traffic directly to and from the Internet via the park’s local area network (LAN). It is a compact, low cost all-IP solution aimed at enterprise environments and which integrates seamlessly with IP-PBX for VoIP services, email and other LAN services. The network is compatible with standard mobile devices.

Key to the project’s success is the flat network architecture of the Nokia Siemens Networks Flexi Multiradio Base Station. The base station implements Internet-High Speed Packet Access (I-HSPA) which eliminates the need for a conventional Radio Network Controller (RNC) to route traffic. This is a critical feature, making Flexi Multiradio Base Station the only base station able to interface with the PRIMO gateway.

Furthermore, the base station’s compact size and low power consumption make it well suited to the needs of an enterprise environment. And unlike small cell (femtocell/picocell) installations, the network covers a wide area and delivers high user capacities. Installation is simple and it can take just minutes to power up and become available to mobile device users.

Solutions

  • Cost effective and compact private mobile network comprising Athonet PRIMO mobile gateway and Nokia Siemens Networks Flexi Multiradio Base Station
  • Implementation and systems integration from Nokia Siemens Networks channel partner.

An end-to-end implementation

As well as providing the base station, Nokia Siemens Networks also gave technical support to Imet and Athonet implementation engineers and tested network coverage and performance after installation. Imet provided key systems integration expertise to the project based on its long-standing experience in mobile operator network deployment.

"Mobile data is growing exponentially. This trend demands that current mobile networks evolve in order to attain greater efficiency, performance and a simpler architecture. PRIMO meets this evolutionary need and with the Nokia Siemens Networks Flexi Base Station provides a very cost-effective solution for corporates, airports, healthcare facilities, campus environments, industrial automation, oil/gas fields, ships as well as rural, hotspot and “digital divide” areas. It is also fast to install, transportable and has a very low energy footprint which makes it well-suited for public safety operations and disaster-hit areas where a UMTS/HSPA network can be deployed in only a few minutes,” explains Emanuele Anzelmo, CTO Imet

Benefits

  • Local mobile device users enjoy better coverage and more reliable mobile broadband access
  • Fixed phones can be replaced by mobile terminals (Fixed-Mobile Convergence)
  • Highly secure dedicated network with prioritized services for professional users
  • AREA Science Park improves services to its tenant customers and creates a new source of revenue

New revenue opportunities

As the AREA Science Park’s one-year pilot of the private mobile network nears completion, the installation is proving a success. Users on the campus now have full mobile broadband access from their standard devices without any congestion problems and with greater bandwidth and lower latencies than using public networks.

The solution enables the campus to provide a new service to its resident enterprise customers in the form of reliable and high performance mobile communications. In addition, it opens up the opportunity for the campus to generate revenue by charging users for accessing and using the network.

“As a science park we work to enable the development of innovative technologies and are even prepared to test them, particularly when they are the product of companies based in our park, such as Athonet. We are convinced that PRIMO represents a considerable step forward in the field of private networks, where there is a greater need for a reliable, flexible and cost-effective communications system,” says Giancarlo Michellone, president of AREA Science Park.