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Combine Wi-Fi and 4.9G/5G private wireless for
fail-safe operational uptime

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Boost operational continuity by combining the power of your networks 

As Industry 4.0 digitalization accelerates, more advanced use cases are emerging, from remote-controlled machine operations to life-critical worker safety, often with significantly increased demands on the underlying network infrastructure. Both Wi-Fi and 4.9G/5G private wireless networks have an important role to play in providing a robust industrial connectivity foundation. With our MX Boost solution, you combine the considerable capacity benefits of Wi-Fi and the mission-critical capabilities of private wireless into a single wireless connectivity system to achieve powerful multi-layer connectivity, so applications with even the most extreme requirements perform at their expected thresholds.

No more trade-offs: Combining Wi-Fi and private wireless for business continuity  

Advanced Industry 4.0 use cases demand flawless connectivity. Otherwise, your digitalization ambitions are in danger of ending in disruption and downtime. A combined network approach provides pervasive coverage and flexible connectivity options across your operation. MX Boost lets you choose how that connectivity is delivered, supporting even the most extreme connectivity requirements and optimizing network performance to suit your different use case needs.

Get a free Wi-Fi subscription with Nokia One Platform

Our purpose is to help you achieve your Industry 4.0 ambition and we believe our Nokia One Platform for industrial digitalization is a key driver to get you where you want to go faster. In fact, we believe so unwaveringly in the value of our one platform and the combined power of Wi-Fi and private wireless it enables, that we are giving a Wi-Fi 6/6E subscription away for free. Click the button below for the full offer details and conditions.

Get your free Wi-Fi subscription

What problems are caused by poor industrial connectivity?

Poor industrial connectivity can lead to a series of challenges, leaving your operation vulnerable to everything from unreliable machine control and patchy IT services to systemic operational disruption and endangered worker safety. These challenges are especially prevalent in complex manufacturing, port terminal and mining operations where insufficient network capabilities can threaten the reliable operation of heavy industrial machinery or worker safety applications.

Nearly US $1.5 trillion

The cost of unplanned downtime to Fortune Global 500 companies, equating to 11% of their yearly turnover.

5.7 million

How many non-fatal incidents happened in the EU and the USA in 2021 alone. Industrial sites have the highest share of non-fatal accidents at 31.2%.

Only 20%

The percentage of industrial enterprises that believe Wi-Fi or public cellular networks are sufficient for their requirements.

Sources: 1) Siemens, 2) Eurostat, National Safety Council 3) GlobalData

Disrupted machine and vehicle operations leading to unplanned downtime

Without adequate capacity, reliability, latency and mobility, seamless, planned operations become impossible. Even if your network does meet use case requirements, but quality degrades or the network fails entirely, mission-critical systems can come to a standstill with no 'safety net' fallback network in place to support them.

Risk to worker health and safety

In life-critical situations, there’s zero margin for error. When every millisecond counts, life-critical safety data has to travel in real-time to trigger instant machine shutdown or dispatch a timely emergency response.

Poor-performing IT services and non-critical OT applications

Legacy Wi-Fi networks increasingly can't keep up with the demands of the digital-era enterprise. That leaves operations vulnerable to challenges from patchy video streaming quality and delayed team communications as well as interruptions to mobile working and unreliable site security.

Combine Wi-Fi and private wireless for improved machine control, safety and uptime

The diagram below shows how a robust, secure and high-performance connectivity foundation can solve a series of challenges and improve operational uptime for better productivity, efficiency and safety.

What role does Wi-Fi play in industrial operations?

Wi-Fi plays an important role in industrial operations and is often deeply embedded into an enterprise's infrastructure. And with the latest technology standard, Wi-Fi 6/6E, enterprises benefit from significant performance improvements. That makes it a solid foundation for your IT services and non-critical OT applications from employee communications and asset tracking to content distribution for deskless workers - helping you deliver seamless operations and improved productivity and efficiency.

What is Wi-Fi 6/6E?

Wi-Fi 6 is the latest Wi-Fi technology standard, providing considerable improvements over previous iterations such as Wi-Fi 5. Its significantly higher capacity, security, speed and scalability make it a suitable connectivity choice for industrial enterprises looking to power their IT and non-critical OT applications.

Wi-Fi 6E is an extension to the standard Wi-Fi 6. The difference between Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E is that the latter uses additional dedicated spectrum capacity that can't be accessed by other Wi-Fi standards. As a result, Wi-Fi 6E offers capacity, latency and reliability improvements for any connected devices and applications.

How does 4.9G/5G private wireless complement Wi-Fi?

Mission-critical 4.9G/5G private wireless uniquely complements your Wi-Fi network by helping you support the more extreme connectivity requirements that new Industry 4.0 use cases place on your network. Wi-Fi has high spectrum bandwidth availability and, under the right conditions, provides significant data capacity advantages. However, the technology does have some inherent limitations that make it inappropriate for critical applications, such as a susceptibility to interference and performance drops with increasing numbers of connected devices and machines. This is where private wireless steps up. 4.9G/5G offers considerably better coverage, reliability, mobility and stable latency to your operation, with predictable performance and a high Quality of Service (QoS).

 

Combining these networks together creates a powerful industrial multi-layer connectivity solution that lets you benefit from the best of both technologies: the mission-critical capabilities of private wireless, and the extra capacity boost of Wi-Fi.

 

Private wireless is and will remain the solution of choice for business- and mission-critical OT use cases. But industrial enterprises still need to cater to a large variety of both OT and IT use cases, so there is need for both connectivity technologies. Wi-Fi and private wireless will harmoniously co-exist and complement each other, delivering seamless performance and improved productivity, efficiency and worker safety across your operation.

What are the benefits of industrial multi-layer connectivity?

Industrial multi-layer connectivity brings significant benefits to your operation. Combining different technologies – including legacy Wi-Fi – into a single, powerful, optimized wireless system means you always have the right connectivity solution in place. You enjoy pervasive coverage across your connected operation with all the capacity, reliability, latency and mobility you need to keep your systems up and running, non-stop. Crucially, you can also optimize network performance for different use-case needs:

Exponential capacity

Say goodbye to sketchy and unstable video-based operations: increased data capacity supports extremely resource-hungry applications such as video-assisted and remote-controlled machine operations.

Improve video-based machine operations with Nokia MX Boost

Ultra-high reliability

Seamless mobility

Multi-layer connectivity also gives you a one-stop wireless approach that lets you cater to today’s Industry 4.0 use case connectivity needs and meet those coming down the line. The benefits to your business are significant:

 

  • Ensure business continuity and seamless operations
  • Increase productivity and efficiency
  • Revolutionize life-critical worker safety
  • Maximize the value and investment of your Industry 4.0 deployment
  • Lay the foundation for future Industry 4.0 use cases

Dive deeper into multi-layer connectivity

Video

Telefónica/O2 Business: Wi-Fi and private wireless work as one

Podcast

How to use the power of Wi-Fi and private wireless to boost digital transformation

One-stop wireless: Meet all your connectivity needs in one

Our experts can help you achieve your digitalization ambitions and get the most from your Industry 4.0 investment by identifying and deploying the right connectivity solution for every one of your changing use case and operational needs. That could include upgrading your legacy Wi-Fi to benefit from the newest generation on the market with Nokia DAC Wi-Fi 6/6E. Our 4.9G/5G private wireless solution also provides robust, flexible and pervasive connectivity for your business- and mission-critical OT applications. Or you may have extreme connectivity requirements that demand the combination of both networking technologies – with MX Boost, you get a powerful multi-layer connectivity system that does exactly that and ensures frictionless, future-proof performance across all your IT and OT applications.

Book an expert consultation

Speak to one of our experts to discuss how a combined network approach can boost your operational performance.

 

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Beyond connectivity: Empower Industry 4.0 digitalization

Simplify your journey with the Nokia One Platform

Our connectivity solutions are only one part of your digital transformation. With the Nokia One Platform you can build on your connectivity foundation to enable new and advanced Industry 4.0 use cases that take you further, faster. An on-premise edge computing capability ensures high-availability, low-latency performance and high data security and sovereignty. You can also connect into our portfolio of ruggedized devices and a whole catalogue of ecosystem-neutral applications to simplify deployment and speed time to market.

Are you a Nokia partner? Discover the MX Boost partner hub!

Use the partner hub to learn more about MX Boost use cases and capabilities, watch the on-demand partner webinar and explore supporting resources and marketing materials.

 

Go to MX Boost partner hub

Explore one-stop wireless for non-stop, fail-safe operations.

Combine the power of your networks to boost Industry 4.0 digitalization

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