We spoke to some interesting Belgian technology companies in the MWC exhibition area. Inmanta uses its knowledge of orchestration in the telecommunications sector to facilitate the rollout of private 5G networks.

We heard from some non-believers at MWC that private 5G is complex. A cumbersome installation would be problematic, not to mention the necessarily time-consuming updating of the entire infrastructure. Trouble requiring time, money and manpower.

Or not, because Inmanta already has the solution ready at the MWC. Three years ago, we spoke to Stefan Walraven about how the KU Leuven spin-off built an end-to-end orchestration layer to offer complex telecom environments the simplicity and, most importantly, the speed of a cloud environment. The technology was appreciated, also by BICS. In this issue, Walraven shows in the Belgian pavilion how this technology can also be applied in the context of private 5G.

Simplicity and adaptability

Inmanta brings its orchestrator specifically to providers of private 4G and 5G networks. This gives them access to an intelligent and automated platform that provides an abstraction layer based on APIs that simplifies the management of the networks. In this way, service providers can provide customers with unique, customized private communications networks while managing all of these disparate networks in a similar context.

“We are currently working with Athonet on this offer,” says Walraven. The Italian company already has a lot of experience in the roll-out of private networks and offers an easily deployable infrastructure for a 4G or 5G core network. Based on this, suppliers can then build a tailor-made network of factories, refineries, ports, etc. Athens is one hot topic at MWC just a week earlier when HPE announced it was acquiring the company to build its own private 5G offering. However, Walraven sees no problem, at least in the short and medium term. “We have a good working relationship with Athonet and our orchestrator can do more than the competition.”

One click and six minutes of patience

What does all this mean in practice? Walraven clarifies. “One push of a button is all it takes to set up and implement a private 5G network. Of course, you can adjust all the parameters as you like, but when all the hardware is installed, it takes about six minutes to activate the network with our Orchestrator.”

And this is where Inmanta’s role begins, as the updates follow after the rollout. “You can easily roll that out with our Orchestrator.” In other words, the service provider can keep a large number of networks for different customers secure and up-to-date at the push of a button, and with a financially and practically viable staff.

And what if HPE took a less competitive path with Athonet, or if other players suddenly became very relevant? Walraven: “Our orchestrator works on the basis of APIs. We can even integrate other hardware into our solution very easily.”