For a company to be truly digital, it needs a network connectivity layer based on mobile broadband technologies like LTE. These networks offer the levels of reliability, coverage, and guaranteed low latency that industrial applications—such as those found in factories, ports, and mining operations—require today to connect thousands of resources and maximize their control capabilities, workflow automation, and advanced analytics.
The new CBRS (Citizen Band Radio Service) capabilities in Nokia Small Cells (an industry first) will allow businesses in the United States to utilize the 3.5 GHz frequency band as soon as it becomes available. These capabilities offer compatibility with Spectrum Access Servers (SAS), which control and allocate the use of shared CBRS spectrum, ensuring that businesses use available spectrum in accordance with current regulations.
Nokia is also launching a virtualized Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) solution, enabling businesses to deploy MEC solutions on commercial servers while facilitating integration into existing IT infrastructures. MEC processes information at the point in the network closest to where it is generated, ensuring the low latency required by mission-critical business applications and providing an interactive user experience even in the most congested environments. By processing information locally, MEC applications can also significantly reduce data transfer costs.
The local traffic distribution capabilities of the virtualized MEC solution allow operators to equip businesses with private LTE networks over their existing 4G network. Furthermore, the virtualized MEC solution is complemented by a range of Nokia virtual core network solutions that provide businesses with greater flexibility to manage their own networks.
Wi-Fi® will continue to be the foundation for non-critical office applications. In this area, Nokia is also offering greater flexibility, performance, and coverage with a new, compact, and cost-effective external AirScale Wi-Fi access point.  
Companies with remote locations face additional challenges in extending support for business-critical operations. Nokia addresses this challenge by enhancing its flexible multi-access Cloud Packet Core with a Hybrid Access Gateway. In addition to providing core packet network functionality, this gateway enables industries such as mining, oil and gas, and others operating private wireless networks, to seamlessly integrate multiple access technologies, including licensed and unlicensed wireless, fixed-band, and satellite networks. This delivers increased capacity and reliability, extending the availability of mission-critical and collaborative services to any location.
Regarding Nokia's new capabilities for the enterprise environment, Monica Paolini, Director of Senza Fili, comments: "Today, businesses need greater flexibility to leverage private wireless networks and meet the specific needs of their services. With these new solutions, Nokia addresses these needs and offers businesses the ability to integrate solutions across licensed, unlicensed, or shared spectrum, thus responding to the quality and latency demands of all their applications."
Thorsten Robrecht, Head of Advanced Mobile Networks Solutions at Nokia, says: “We want to drive the evolution towards the fourth industrial revolution by offering companies the ability to leverage private wireless networks for their critical communications needs and accelerate enterprise applications that improve their efficiency. We continue to advance our comprehensive services and solutions so that businesses can transition to digitalization smoothly and cost-effectively, in preparation for the automation that 5G will bring in the future.”

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