case study

5G RuralDorset

Understanding how next generation connectivity can help people live better

Scenic view of a coastal cliff meeting a turquoise sea under a cloudy sky. Rocky outcrops extend into the water.

5G RuralDorset was a ground-breaking project to understand how next generation connectivity can help people live better, safer and more prosperous lives in rural communities, even in environments as sensitive as Dorset’s UNESCO-designated world heritage coastline. We aimed to show how enhanced connectivity can make Dorset a better place to live, work and visit.

This research and development project contributed to the understanding of how 5G can be used to address specific challenges within 4 main areas – agriculture and aquaculture, developing a rural business accelerator, coastal safety, and creating an innovation accelerator.

Visit the 5G Rural Dorset Website

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Since its launch, 5G Rural Dorset has won several awards:

Connected Britain 2021 Awards

The Barrier Removal Award
The 5G Initiative Award
The Sustainability Award

UK5G Awards

Collaborative Engagement

Connected Britain 2022 Awards

The Access Innovation Award

Our Role in 5G RuralDorset

As part of 5G RuralDoreset we developed a network that could be used for the coastal safety trials, integrating the 5G core at our Future Networks Development Centre with infrastructure provided by other partners. We also investigated long-term options for rolling out enhanced connectivity with neutral hosting – the sharing of infrastructure between operators – and techniques for doing this, with consideration to costs and impact on the local area.

In addition to the above, our agriculture team supported the future of food trials, ensuring applications are designed and delivered based upon clear user need and business justification, and supporting the use of satellite connectivity and imagery within these use cases.

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Deployment Requirements

Assess the 5G for Cooperative Connected and Automated Mobility (CCAM) requirements on the major EU transport routes, select and map suitable use cases, and perform a cost-benefit analysis.

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Trials and Integration

Develop the corridors by integrating 5G technologies, conduct trials to assess the 5G capabilities for automated driving, and identify business enablers.

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Deployment Strategy

5G deployment plan for EU, inputs for regulation, interoperability, and recommendations for standardisation and new business.

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Evaluation

Evaluate 5G technical aspects for different stakeholders: operators, service providers, automobile manufacturers etc. And ensure the outreach of the project's impact.

Neutral Host

Neutral Hosting is an extension, and significant improvement, on the traditional Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) approach. In a neutral host setup, the equipment used (such as the base station equipment) is no longer operator-specific as the equipment becomes operator-agnostic. This makes it more straightforward to deploy one set of equipment through a building or location and serve users of all mobile networks from that equipment. At the outset, this makes it more affordable to deliver 5G services in rural and other hard-to-reach areas.

Telecommunications tower with digital network overlay against a blue sky background.

Within this project we looked at multiple deployment options of the 5G neutral host (NH) concept including active infrastructure sharing based on common and dedicated spectrum and common core network functions, as well as looking at the business challenges and security aspects. We also completed a comprehensive study on the virtualisation of RAN (Radio Access Network) components of the NH based on proprietary vRAN (virtual RAN) and open O-RAN (Open RAN) architectures, as well as a comparison among the various architectural references, which will provide the optimum implementation strategy towards the commercialisation of NH platforms.