The hidden risks of multivendor private wireless - Part 1: Five questions to consider when choosing private wireless

As you move forward on your industrial digitalization journey, you may be evaluating private wireless for secure, high-coverage, low latency connectivity. Whether you want to leverage AI-powered decision-making, enhance worker safety, or support autonomous operations, private wireless with integrated edge processing offers a resilient foundation.

When considering the adoption of private wireless technology, you might face the dilemma of selecting a tailored multi-vendor system, offered by some system integrators or a single pre-integrated solution. Your decision will influence how your industrial connectivity will be built and managed for years. To help you, we’ve identified key considerations and compared a multivendor tailor-made solution with a fully integrated, cloud managed platform in each case.

1. What level of specialist expertise do you want to bring to the project?

One critical factor is the level of in-house expertise available across network planning, design, systems integration, optimization and ongoing management. Private wireless environments sit at the intersection of IT and operational technology. Deploying and operating a multivendor ecosystem often requires specialist expertise that many enterprises prefer not to maintain in-house. In this case it’s vital to select a systems integrator that can navigate individual vendor design nuances, operations and do the needed testing, to validate that all components will operate, when “glued” together.

An integrated private wireless network solution brings together 4.9G/LTE and 5G radios, edge compute, IP transport and the cloud-based O&M into a single, pre-integrated platform for pervasive coverage and deterministic connectivity. It enables simplified deployment, operations and future expansion.

2. How quickly do you need to realize value?

Time-to-value is one of the clearest differentiators. Integration and testing can have a lasting impact on costs when sourcing components from multiple providers. While standards-based products are supposedly designed to interoperate, in reality it can be complex to achieve.

Proprietary differences in APIs, software dependencies, optimization approaches and quality-of-service implementation can impact deployment and create friction once a multivendor system is operational. More time is spent on integration, interoperability testing and validation before services can be put into operation.

Service time-to-value is significantly compressed with the pre-integrated and tested end-to-end private wireless network, as efforts shift to site and service readiness. Applications are deployed seamlessly and a full radio access network (RAN) feature set ensures higher network availability and coverage, lower interference and greater stability for service expansion.

Management costs should also be considered. In a multivendor network solution individual vendor operation support systems (OSS) may be deeply embedded, or require separate licenses, each with subscription fees, support contracts, increased training requirements and more. We estimate that could increase costs by up to 20%.

3. How will you scale?

In our first Industrial Digitalization report 45% of organizations told us they were leveraging private wireless for more use cases than initially planned, and 100% had extended use elsewhere. As your needs evolve you want solution scalability, flexibility and predictability. If for example, you have connected the factory floor but later want to implement AGVs campus-wide, handover between radios and latency becomes critical.

New services can unmask limitations of reduced radio specifications. Network disconnections can halt productivity, reduce efficiency, increase costs, and in the case of autonomous vehicles, impact safety.  New site expansion requires replicated system integration effort.

When deploying the integrated version complexities are flattened as you expand capabilities in line with needs in the as-a-service model. Supported by a full radio access network (RAN) feature set and an easy to replicate system, site expansion is simplified and accelerated.

4. How will you approach operational complexities?

Power spikes across the factory or autonomous mobile robots (AMR) network disconnections must be managed quickly. In a tailored multi-vendor system, root cause identification and resolution can take time as visibility is fragmented across multiple OSS screens. Moreover, pinpointing across different stakeholders can further delay resolution.

The cloud-based management of the integrated private wireless network provides single pane of glass visibility across network, devices and applications. Technicians can use advanced troubleshooting tools and implement service levels and alarms for early issue notification. Faster resolutions equate to cost savings which in a high-value manufacturing facility can be significant.

5. How will you update SW and mitigate the risk of outdated SW?

Software updates are critical to keep the system performing at its best, patching security issues or introducing new capabilities. While the private wireless network is expected to power operation 24/7 the software update impact is often forgotten when choosing a private wireless solution.

System integrators who offer multi-vendor solutions, test systems in their labs before deployment but often omit to explain what will happen when each component vendor releases new software for their elements. The reality is that a working system on day 1 may no longer function properly when one of its elements get updated. The reality is a single update means the complete system needs to be tested again (called regression testing). In the best case, it means a stop of operation to validate no issues are introduced but in the worst case, this new software may cause trouble, and the private wireless may be down for days, weeks until a solution is found.

This is not the case with single vendor end-to-end system, since all of this regression testing is done before deployment, simplifying updated and reducing the risk of failures at each update.

Holistic accountability vs operational risk

While deployment may be your primary focus, when issues arise down the line you need clear accountability. Some view multivendor environments as a way of retaining control, but it also introduces complexity and inflate costs into the future.

With an integrated solution, you benefit from a unified full support model and clear accountability. You can also implement services, devices and third-party applications faster from a broad industry ecosystem as needs evolve, without introducing complexity.

These are just some of the advantages of a pre-integrated private wireless platform. Discover how Nokia ECE DAC PW can help accelerate your digitalization initiatives while reducing risk and operational overhead into the future.