Companies can reduce infrastructure by setting up indoor positioning through their private cellular network
Organizations are less stationary than ever. Enterprise technologies like private 5G are making operations more mobile, cost-effective, and working conditions safer. But mobility also makes it much easier to lose highly valuable assets, and much harder to prevent potentially catastrophic workplace accidents.
Different places, same challenges for tracking enterprise tools, equipment, and people
The connected assets that enterprises rely on in manufacturing plants, warehouses, and underground mines can be extremely expensive. For example, a connected wrench that helps workers fine-tune an exact amount of torque might cost thousands of dollars. If an employee misplaces and can't find the tool across thousands or millions of square feet, that's a very expensive mistake that can disrupt operations and hinder quality.
And what if one of these connected tools is finely tuned for a specific workstation? If it's accidentally moved to and then used in a different area, the resultant mistakes could be incredibly expensive. The whole assembly line might have to be redone or even scrapped. Because of this, indoor asset tracking solutions can save companies time and money by allowing them to monitor the whereabouts of devices, equipment, and people in real time.
Additionally, indoor asset tracking can help companies monitor the location of their workers, which expedites response during emergencies. It also can trigger alarms when someone enters an unsafe area — helping prevent dangerous accidents. Accurate asset tracking data also is essential for use cases such as AGV and AMR navigation, geofencing, and digital twins.
The evolution of indoor asset tracking
Many companies use real-time location systems (RTLS) through a somewhat complex setup that combines Wi-Fi and Bluetooth beacons. This strategy can be very effective, but also difficult to manage and scale. It also can be quite expensive to provision in large spaces such as manufacturing plants and warehouses.
Alternatively, if you already have a private 5G network installed, you can use the existing infrastructure to perform precise indoor positioning — without deploying new hardware like Bluetooth beacons or using additional vendors and services.
Precise indoor positioning through existing private 5G infrastructure
Enterprises can use precise indoor positioning to monitor the location of any device that is connected to an Ericsson Private 5G network via a physical or electronic SIM. That location data can be exposed through an API so that it can be incorporated into third-party indoor asset tracking platforms.
How does it work? This feature depends on multi-lateration positioning in which the Ericsson Radio Dot System measures the relative time of arrival of 5G uplink signals to multiple radios. In other words, the system triangulates a device's location through the radio access network, or RAN.
Indoors, private 5G radios provide more coverage with less hardware than is required with Wi-Fi access points. In addition, a comprehensive private 5G solution doesn't require beacons attached to each device or vehicle to track its location. Instead, the solution can work with any 5G-enabled device, tracking its movements through the device's chipset.
Precise indoor positioning through the right private 5G solution can enable network administrators and operational technology managers to track equipment with incredible accuracy — to within a few meters, in many cases.
This strategy has emerged as an excellent option for enterprises that are forward-thinking enough to plan their private 5G and asset tracking projects simultaneously. The site design process allows the implementation team to strategically determine the placement of each cellular radio in a way that optimizes all key use cases.
Learn more about the value of full-stack private 5G solutions.
