One enclosure carrying a 5G NR small cell, a Wi-Fi 7 access point, the user plane and enough compute to run something useful next to the radio. Enterprises already run both networks and do not want a third box, a third cable run or a third thing to manage — and once the user plane is on site, traffic between local devices need never leave the building.
A building that wants private 5G usually already has Wi-Fi, and will keep it. Deploying a separate small cell alongside means a second set of mounting points, a second cable run, a second power budget and a second management plane — which is why so many private network trials never reach a second floor.
This platform puts both radios in one enclosure, on one backhaul, under one management interface. Beyond the obvious installation saving, the interesting part is what becomes possible when the two accesses share an anchor: a session can steer between them, switch without breaking, or split across both.
The user plane sits in the box. That is the difference between a private network and a private network worth having: traffic between two devices on site is forwarded locally rather than travelling to a core and back, which removes the latency, the transport cost and the question of whether that data ever left the premises.
| Parameter | Detail |
|---|---|
| 5G NR | gNB supporting standalone operation; non-standalone where an anchor exists |
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi 7 access point, integrated rather than co-located |
| Carrier aggregation | Up to four component carriers, configurable across the licensed bands deployed |
| Multi-operator | MOCN, broadcasting multiple network identities from one carrier where sharing is agreed |
| Generations | 4G and 5G concurrently, for estates where devices span both |
| User plane | Embedded, with local breakout so on-site traffic does not traverse the core |
| Convergence | Steering, switching and splitting between 5G and Wi-Fi at a common anchor |
| Edge compute | Hosting capacity alongside the radio for inference or control that cannot tolerate a round trip |
| Backhaul | Ethernet or fibre, with the fronthaul internal to the unit |
| Deployment | Indoor, campus and industrial; cascaded where a corridor or tunnel needs it |
Maturity — silicon-proven, FPGA-validated or RTL stage — is confirmed at enquiry for the specific configuration you need, rather than claimed generically here.
Send the target node, the interface requirements and the integration context. If this is not the right fit, that will be said early rather than discovered at integration.
Because enterprises already run Wi-Fi and will keep it. A separate small cell means a second set of mounting points, cable runs, power budget and management plane, which is where many private network trials stall. One box removes that, and sharing an anchor makes steering and splitting between the two accesses possible.
Traffic between devices on site is forwarded locally rather than travelling to a central core and back. That removes latency and transport cost, and it means local data need never leave the premises — which for some deployments is a regulatory requirement rather than an optimisation.
Combining up to four carriers to raise throughput and use fragmented spectrum holdings efficiently. Which carriers and which combination depends on the licensed bands actually deployed, so it is configured per deployment rather than fixed.
Where a sharing agreement exists, yes — multiple network identities broadcast from one carrier under MOCN. The limit is how many identities a cell can advertise, which is a hard constraint rather than a tuning parameter.
Because some work cannot tolerate a round trip. Vision inference, closed-loop control and local decision-making all have budgets that a journey to a data centre exceeds, and putting the compute beside the radio is the shortest path available.
Usually not. Most deployments add licensed spectrum to an estate that already has good Wi-Fi, and the value is in the two working as one rather than in replacing what works.
Where capacity needs the higher bands.
KNOWLEDGEWhy the anchor position matters.
KNOWLEDGEThe sharing models.
PRODUCTThe self-contained core.
KNOWLEDGEWi-Fi into the 5G core.
TECHNOLOGYRU, DU, CU and the splits.
Tell us the specification, the constraint and the deadline. Programmes that cross silicon, radio, embedded and AI are where Faststream is strongest.