ON-SIDE is a consortium-led co-innovation project striving to maximise the use of 5G spectrum — a national asset, and a valuable one at that — for the economic benefit of the country.
Our project has two broad aims.
First, we’re looking at how to make better use of available 5G spectrum. This will involve, among other things, investigating how to spin up standalone network sites in specific locations for short, set periods of time, while enabling Ofcom to manage the spectrum allocation process in a more dynamic way.
In doing this, we’ll be building on other, pioneering work in the UK that has helped to extend the use of shared spectrum. One of the things that’s most exciting about ON-SIDE is that it builds on a number of previous 5G projects delivered by this consortium of partners – 5G RuralFirst, 5G RailNext and 5G New Thinking – which all to some degree explored what 5G can do and how we can share spectrum effectively. ON-SIDE is the next chapter in a story of research, development and innovation that stems back to 2017 and we’re bringing all that experience and learning, alongside established working relations, to now progress to the next level.
The UK is currently one of the world leaders in offering private access to shared mid band spectrum. But our research also indicates that, without improved accessibility for short-term, private, or pop-up usage, considerable stretches of 5G spectrum can still remain unused.
ON-SIDE will develop new ways to monitor usage levels across frequency bands and locations, as well as how to utilise and then return set frequency ranges to open availability. We’ll be working with Ofcom to formulate a more agile means of executing spectrum requests too.
Some of our team’s experience of working on broadcasts for the King’s Coronation in 2023 and, more recently, at the Paris Olympics, has helped to illustrate the huge potential of what we can achieve with a more fluid approach to spectrum sharing. Prototypes for portable network infrastructure from these events will play a significant role in the ON-SIDE project.
This leads to the second strand of our project, as we set about testing new industrial and commercial use cases for private 5G networks. We’ll be working with port operators, stadium owners, broadcasters, and airport managers to help them understand how dedicated 5G networks can enhance their day-to-day operations, and improve their customers’ experiences along the way.
There is, of course, plenty of room for overlap across our two work strands — and our consortium is ideally equipped to make full use of those opportunities. Our team brings together the technical nous and experience of Cisco, Logicalis and the BBC’s R&D function with academic excellence from the Universities of Strathclyde and Glasgow, cutting-edge start-up agility from Scottish Wireless and Neutral Wireless, and the community connection and vision that working with local government (in this case, Glasgow City Council) provides.
Some of our tests will work, some will not. This, and the iterative spirit it encourages, is the very nature of innovation. The journey is the discovery. ON-SIDE is about stripping back the barriers to innovation, and unlocking the power of private 5G. We look forward to sharing our progress with you.