How to verify 5G private networks for military communication

Best practices for mobile network testing for mission-critical applications

Key Points:

Mission-Critical Infrastructure: Military operations require extremely high reliability and availability, as any downtime can result in compromised missions and significant strategic losses. The reliability of communication networks is crucial to ensure seamless execution of military operations.

Fundamental requirements: Military applications often require low latency and sustainable latency to ensure real-time communication and control, particularly in situations where split-second decisions can mean the difference between success and failure. This is critical for applications such as command and control systems, surveillance, and reconnaissance.

Measurement Techniques: As soon as the radio access network is used, innovative testing methods are needed beforehand to proactively test the network capability and to identify any potential issues. We propose a standard test procedure for the characterization of a network regarding military use-cases that covers a representative set of different, common types of network traffic.