FierceNetwork recently published an article talking about the private 5G network implemented by John Deere for it’s campuses and factories. Having a secure private wireless network is allowing the company to implement 5G technology onto the manufacturing floor.
The company got started on this solution when it spent $546,000 to buy CBRS PALs licenses in 2021 in five counties in Illinois and Iowa, that included its headquarters in Rock Island County, Illinois. John Deere has more than twenty facilities in the five counties.
The key to making this work was the exclusive use of spectrum, meaning that Deere can always rely on the wireless bandwidth free of interference or use by others. That assurance allows the company to establish a wireless network to communicate directly with manufacturing equipment in its factories.
It’s taken four years for the company to make the transition to wireless broadband, with the company having to find a 5G interface for each piece of equipment. Jason Wallin of John Deere is quoted that the company adopted an 80-10-10 model where 80% of broadband needs are covered by the private 5G networks, 10% by WiFi, and 10% with hard-wired Ethernet. The company says it is spending $1.7 million this year on updated smart tools to take advantage of the wireless network.
The company was quoted in 2021 about seeking the same wireless solution in its other factories around the world. But adopting this in other locations would require working with a cellular license holder to somehow carve out spectrum for each factory.
The creation of 5G private networks was one of the original big promises for 5G. There have been some notable examples of private 5G networks created around the world for Airbus, Shanxi Coking Coal, Group, Tesla, Lufthansa Technik, and NEC. However, this has not been the booming business for cellular carriers they hoped for. If you look back at industry press five years ago, you’d see the carriers touting this as a major opportunity. However, like other business lines based on 5G, the performance badly underperformed the expectations. The John Deere example showed a corporation that found it better to buy the spectrum and tackle this on its own rather than partnering with a carrier.
The CTO of John Deere says the company expects to use the newly created wireless network far into the future. This sounds like a relatively small investment to gain the benefits of fully automating the factory floor by connecting all machinery to an integrated network.