Ericsson launched a new, end-to-end solution for Time-Critical Communication on October 25th, at EXPO 2020, with the goal of delivering consistent low latency and high reliability required to realize a variety of use cases beyond enhanced mobile broadband services. The new solution is intended to address the need for consistent low latency and highly reliable performance, as demanded by many time-critical use cases, while also delivering on the full promise of 5G.

Time-Critical Communication is a set of software tools for dealing with lags and interruptions. The software product provides consistent low latency (50ms to 1ms) end-to-end (e2e) at specified guarantee levels (99.9 percent to 99.999 percent), allowing time-critical use cases to be executed at scale. This e2e solution combines RAN, Transport, 5G Core, Management & Orchestration, BSS, and Support Services to address Time-Critical Communication requirements across multiple industries. It will enable new use case categories, resulting in new business opportunities and revenue streams in addition to MBB services.

Ericsson is enabling Time-Critical Communication through its new Critical IoT product – easily deployable as a software upgrade on public and private 5G networks, on any 5G frequency band.

The ongoing deployments of standalone 5G networks with Massive multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO), QoS differentiation, edge computing, and network slicing provide a solid foundation for delivering time-critical services in coexistence with mobile broadband, targeting consumer-driven innovative applications such as real-time media.

Ericsson is taking a critical step forward in unlocking the full potential of 5G and delivering ROI for communications service providers by providing an end-to-end solution that can consistently and reliably support time-critical applications and services.

Another business driver for Critical IoT is the emergence of private networks for industrial use, which necessitates specific features such as 5G integration with real-time Ethernet. As a result, now is the time to consider how to evolve different deployments for new use cases based on consistent (bounded) low latency and reliability in order to address new revenue streams.

The Ericsson e2e Critical IoT solution addresses four fundamental time-critical use case categories that are shared by multiple verticals: real-time media, remote control, industrial control, and mobility automation. The solution also addresses three major network deployment scenarios: general public network infrastructure, dedicated wide-area network infrastructure, and dedicated local-area network infrastructure. Furthermore, it addresses time-critical use cases across the board by adding support for Critical IoT connectivity to NR carriers via SW upgrades.

Critical IoT is intended for time-critical applications and services that require data delivery within a specific time period with a certain guarantee, such as data delivery within 50ms with 99.9% certainty (reliability). This is fundamentally different from enhanced mobile broadband connectivity, which maximizes data rates while making no guarantees about latency. Ericsson’s Time-Critical Communication solution is expected to be adopted early for remote control and real-time media applications via public and dedicated networks.