According to the Finnish telecoms giant, the private 5G network covers 55,000m² across the site where ASN makes submarine cables for communication service providers, public cloud providers and others who want to connect infrastructure across oceans.
The Nokia network core is deployed at a small dedicated data center near the factory in Calais in a move ASN said would help "reduce latencies".
The network spans 11 buildings, a deck, and an underground tunnel through which the cable is routed to go from the factory and storage tanks to vessels. With 55 Nokia remote radio heads deployed indoors, and two further deployed outdoors, the duo claimed that "anyone can be connected anywhere, at any place, or on any floor of the factory".
Tom Richter, head of Nokia’s manufacturing business, said the 5G network will eventually provide low latency data transfer to support real-time quality control during the manufacturing process.
He added: “When you start to deal with real-time data, it is mission critical, and for this you need a 5G network. Currently, the network is providing round-trip data transfers in less than 10 milliseconds - the goal is to reach latencies below 5 milliseconds."
Richter also said the private 5G network also interfaces with SAP’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, which it connects to “through a classical IT system.”
French operator Iliad provided the 3.5 GHz spectrum for the private network, and Iliad subsidiary Free Pro deployed the network infrastructure and all SIM cards for the Zebra industrial grade tablets, which workers use to see documents during production.
Iliad also operates a private 5G network for ASN in the UK, using spectrum purchased from regulator Ofcom. Like the Calais network, ASN’s private 5G network in Greenwich is controlled by a small dedicated data centre. Currently, the two private networks are not connected to one another, but ASN said that a future gateway-linked network will be "considered very strongly.”
Explaining the deployment, Christophe Bejina, ASN Group's chief information officer, said: “In a normal public 5G network you’d see 20 milliseconds [latencies] and that would be too long for us. Below 10 milliseconds is acceptable for the time being. You go to [private] 5G because there is a roadmap.
"[Equally] nothing else but a 5G network will bring you the security provided by SIM cards with encrypted data."
The French government helped finance the project, which will support a range of companies including ASN's largest customer Facebook-owner Meta, through its Recovery Plan and the Future Investment Programme.
