Private 5G and the port of the future — a Comms Connect presentation preview

In April 2021, Verizon Business announced it was working with Associated British Ports (ABP) to deploy private 5G at the Port of Southampton. Delivered in partnership with Nokia, Verizon’s private 5G platform would provide one of the UK’s busiest ports with a secure, low-latency private network connection. At Comms Connect Melbourne this October, Verizon’s Tony Harb will share some of the lessons learned from the Southampton deployment, touching on the challenges and opportunities in deploying private industrial networks in Australia.

Responsible for £40 billion in exports from the UK every year, the Port of Southampton provides a critical link in supply chains serving businesses and manufacturers throughout the nation. It is also a leading port for cars and cruise, handling approximately 900,000 cars and welcoming millions of cruise passengers annually. With pressure on ports — and the entire supply chain — at its height, ABP knew it needed to streamline processes, get a consistent view of operations and enable new technology.

The Port of Southampton contains 85 ha of land, hundreds of kilometres of service roads, thousands of storage areas and seven-storey parking structures, 45 ship berths and four cruise terminals. Thousands of employees across this vast area need connectivity to do their jobs — but connectivity challenges were forcing staff to log key pieces of information manually. Indeed, with the port a major centre of automobile imports, staff were using handheld devices to scan each car and track its arrival and parking location — but with public 4G, the port often lost out on that data. That led to big inefficiencies, including valuable port real estate not being used optimally.

ABP made the strategic decision to use a Verizon Private 5G Network to help make the Port of Southampton an efficient, global port; in doing so, Southampton became the first UK mainland port with access to a private 5G network. The platform would provide ABP with a secure private wireless data network across selected areas within the east and west docks of the port, enabling data communications to be consolidated onto a single network and reducing previous complexity.

Not only did the deployment address the immediate problem of loss of onsite data communications as a result of poor Wi-Fi connectivity, but the advanced capabilities of private 5G — specifically its reliability, throughput, security and ultralow latency — can help enable the use of new technologies such as real-time analytics, the Internet of Things (IoT) and machine learning. In turn, this can help with the enablement of new service advancements including asset tracking, autonomous guided vehicles, workflow management, predictive maintenance and safety monitoring in the near future.

Fast data exchange and near real-time analytics now allow ABP to update customs with real-time information, whether it’s loading or discharging a vehicle, or releasing it to the end customer. More efficient connectivity has also boosted morale — employees no longer fear drops in service that would force them to resort to writing notes on paper. Furthermore, ABP can better keep track of vehicles, allowing the port authority to move products off ships, into parking and out to buyers far more efficiently. The company is now exploring a number of cutting-edge use cases to take advantage of the Verizon Private 5G Network and further improve operations.

“The private 5G network gives us the ability to be creative with technology, and to really test our ability to bring new ideas and innovation through our ports,” said Scott Sier, Head of Technology and Digital Experience at ABP.

“The Port of Southampton is Britain’s gateway to the world, and a private 5G network can enable us to become the port of the future,” added Beatriz Moore, Head of IT Strategy and Architecture at ABP.

‘Deploying a private 5G industrial network — lessons learnt’ will take place at Comms Connect Melbourne on 20 October from 2 to 2.30 pm. For more information, visit the event website.