Nokia is releasing software that allows enterprises to deploy standalone (SA) 5G private wireless networks. The vendor, which has more than 180 private wireless networks deployed to date, is assembling specialized features in a smaller software stack to target the SA 5G opportunity among enterprises.

The company is working with multiple enterprises and vendors to validate highly industrial use cases for 5G in a standalone context and points to recent 5G private wireless network deployments with Deutsche Bahn, Lufthansa Technik, and Toyota Production Engineering as examples. Nokia also separately announced a new deal to deploy a SA 5G private network for Sandvik’s mining and rock technology division at its test mine in Tampere, Finland.

Nokia’s efforts to develop a specialized SA 5G software for enterprises followed a similar path it took for private wireless in enterprises on 4G LTE, explained Stephane Daeuble, head of enterprise marketing at Nokia. Private enterprise networks are “significantly smaller in terms of size and capacity, so effectively that’s one part of it. We have to adapt 5G code to effectively function for much smaller deployments as well,” he said.

“Today, things are a lot easier because a lot of things are now virtualized or cloud defined, so we were able to rapidly downscale what we provide to [communications service providers] and offer effectively a scaled down version for the enterprise,” Daeuble said.

Nokia also had to adapt its network management system for enterprise-specific features in 5G, he said. Whereas large scale operator deployments run network management systems in the cloud, this version of Nokia’s SA 5G software allows for network management systems run locally, he explained.

The vendor has deployed 30 private 5G wireless networks with enterprises to date, and roughly half of its cumulative 180 private networks are riding on operator managed spectrum while the remainder are using unique shared spectrum bands that are currently available in a few dozen countries, Daeuble said.

4G LTE supports 85% of the applications that enterprises need today, but Nokia is positioning its portfolio for emerging and yet-to-be-realized opportunities, he added. While the upper limits of 4G LTE “is able to support a large majority of use cases, there are existing and new use cases that require 5G future capabilities,” he said. “The one thing that tends to have more need for 5G today is in the manufacturing space.”

Nokia is actively and increasingly embracing open radio access network (RAN) principles and standards across its portfolio targeting operators, but this SA 5G effort follows that to a lesser degree, Daeuble said. Most enterprises are focused on deploying end-to-end networks and don’t want to bother with buying disaggregated radios and other equipment, he said.

“In almost all of our deployments so far the enterprises have been choosing a single vendor to supply them the end-to-end, and the end-to-end goes way beyond the radio,” Daeuble added.

The vendor’s advancements on the enterprise front follow a particularly busy and somewhat unsettling period for Nokia. The company recently released software to upgrade the majority of its 4G LTE radios to 5G, and said its network slicing software will be commercially available before the end of the year. 

Nokia is also preparing to welcome its new CEO Pekka Lundmark, who is expected to take over on Aug. 1, just weeks after a shocking report about Verizon’s plans to end its relationship with Nokia and award Samsung roughly half of its RAN contract going forward.