Nokia and BT make waves at a major sailing event in UK
Nokia has teamed up with BT Group to revolutionize the spectator experience at a major sailing event, taking place in Portsmouth, UK, from the 19–20th of July. This groundbreaking partnership will see the companies bring cutting-edge 5G Standalone network slicing technology to events such as this global sailing competition featuring teams from around the world racing high-performance F50 foiling catamarans.
Plain sailing with Nokia’s Network Slicing solution
Our 5G network slicing technology will enhance the live event experience of visitors, supporting various applications including point-of-sale terminals, broadcasting and fan entertainment. 5G slicing ensures high-quality connectivity for applications and services, even in crowded areas. For payment services, dedicated slice bandwidth provides a stable connection and smooth operation. Behind the scenes, BT’s sliced network supports race boat connections for broadcasting onboard video and photography, as well as transmitting telemetry data.
BT’s 5G Standalone network slices will deliver high performance, reduced latency and reliable connections for spectators, applications and various use cases. This deployment will showcase 5G’s potential to enhance live events, benefiting both end-users and machine-to-machine communication. Network slicing enables service differentiation for end-user and Internet-of-Things devices by optimizing bandwidth, latency, reliability and security.
Engineering seamless 5G at sea
This major sailing event presents a challenging environment for network planning and optimization, with numerous spectators, a diverse mix of devices and applications concentrated in a relatively small area. In preparation, we have worked closely with BT on the design and implementation of an end-to-end (E2E) sliced network. Network slices for the event were implemented on BT’s public EE 5G standalone (SA) network, encompassing devices, RAN, transport, core and applications, along with management and assurance systems. Both companies deployed slicing capabilities across several radio mast sites covering the event area around Portsmouth Harbour. We have also supplied our AirScale 5G base stations, which were connected to multi-vendor transport and core networks, as well as its AI-powered MantaRay NM management and monitoring solution. Network slicing was enabled via software upgrades to our existing product portfolio. Our extensive technical and business expertise, as well as global experience in live network slicing deployments, contributed to the successful rollout.
Network slicing gains momentum
Network slicing is rapidly gaining traction in the telecommunications industry, with communication service providers (CSPs) launching commercial services. These services cater to enterprises, industries, 5G mobile broadband (MBB), fixed wireless access (FWA) and events such as the one in Portsmouth, creating new opportunities for CSPs to monetize their 5G networks.
As a leading end-to-end network slicing solutions provider, Nokia has deployed industry-first slicing solutions across enterprise and industry 4G/5G virtual private networks, 5G MBB, FWA, multi-access networks and edge/cloud applications, collaborating with operators and partners. Our approach empowers CSPs to design and deploy valuable, monetizable slicing services across the entire ecosystem, from devices and RAN/FAN to transport, core and cloud applications, integrating management, control, orchestration and assurance to enable successful 5G services.
For more details on our collaboration, read BT’s official press release here and explore our Network Slicing solutions webpage to see how we’re enhancing connectivity for live events and beyond.
