Your organization depends on data. Whether it’s for sharing critical information with your team, monitoring production efforts, and tracking inventory, data is vital to the operations of most businesses and has become the “fourth utility,” meaning it’s just as vital as power, water, and heating/cooling. To ensure your organization is efficient and effective, having data is no longer a “nice-to-have” it’s a “must-have” that can allow you to expand your business-critical communications capabilities.
While businesses have traditionally relied on WiFi to power their data needs, it’s becoming more common that WiFi does not best support some business-critical applications and devices. Large manufacturing facilities, for example, often have equipment that is moved across the floor or around the building but that needs to remain constantly connected. WiFi signals are frequently interrupted by this type of movement and, in general, need help covering the large expanse of the facility and making their way through and around the equipment. Large resorts, college campuses, and healthcare facilities face similar issues in extending their signal across the campus and into the various rooms and buildings that need connectivity.
As a result of these shortcomings, organizations are seeking a reliable solution for their data, voice, and video needs.
Solving The WiFi Challenge
In order to address some of the challenges that organizations face with achieving constant connectivity for business-critical applications and communications, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS), a new type of radio spectrum, to complement WiFi. CBRS operates on an underutilized radio frequency that the U.S. government formerly underutilized for satellite and radar systems. The 150 MHz portion of the 3.5 GHz radio spectrum enables private LTE broadband for commercial enterprises and offers better coverage, capacity, and security than WiFi.
Since the CBRS spectrum is not shared, businesses can use fewer but more powerful transmitters. Similarly, a single CBRS access point can cover the same area that typically requires five or six WiFi points, thus resulting in fewer installations and lower maintenance costs. Devices can also take advantage of the fact that CBRS is based on LTE and can, therefore, seamlessly handoff between access points as employees travel between rooms or even buildings.
CBRS is also more secure than WiFi, as it utilizes SIM cards rather than SSIDs. SIMs can be easily disabled by network administrators if needed, as they have complete control over the network.
| WiFi | CBRS | TAKEAWAY | |
| COVERAGE | Most Wi-Fi designs center around capacity. 5GHz has limited coverage. | The combination of 3.5GHz spectrum, interference-handling protocols, and radio receiver sensitivity make CBRS perfect for larger enterprises. It offers 3-4x the coverage of Wi-Fi indoors and outdoors can reach up to 1 mile away. | CBRS LTE deployments provide better coverage and network performance while significantly reduce the number of Access points required. It also reduces infrastructure and support costs — including power, backhaul, security and more. |
| SECURITY | As Wi-Fi is a wireless shared spectrum, it’s faces many challenges that private networks do not including being commonly targeted by hackers as a way to get inside a business’ network and being much more open to eavesdroppers. | CBRS is more secure than a shared network. SIM cards, which are required to gain access to the network, must be activated on the network from a secure computer login. | Enterprises can build and operate their own private Networks with CBRS, ensuring security from those looking for potential weaknesses within the shared wireless spectrum. |
| MOBILITY | Wi-Fi suffers from sub-optimal channel utilization since clients do not actively search for optimal access points. | Handovers between nodes happen with no packet loss since LTE networks guide clients to move through optimal access points. | With CBRS, you experience solid network performance and eliminate the frustrations of Wi-Fi in a mobile environment, such as dropped calls and disconnections. |
Nitro™ Boosts Coverage, Security, and Mobility
Coverage
The purpose of Nitro is to offer exceptional coverage for both staff and student devices, thereby minimizing the need to install equipment outside of their homes. By utilizing the strength of private LTE, Nitro is capable of providing broadband data access to users located within your school district’s geographic area.
Security
Nitro has been designed to align with the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) five pillars of cybersecurity: Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover. Nitro also offers complete end-to-end encryption, starting from the core and extending down to the site infrastructure, which ensures the security of all Nitro components and reduces the risk of potential data breaches.
Mobility
With Nitro, your team can move around their work environment with ease and without the common frustrations that arise when using WiFi for data or voice coverage. Nitro boasts up to 4 times the range of traditional Wi-Fi networks and twice the data capacity of traditional Wi-Fi networks*. Moreover, Nitro is reliable even when used outdoors.
About MCA
MCA is one of the largest and most trusted integrators in the United States, offering world-class voice, data, and security solutions that enhance the quality, safety, and productivity of customers, operations, and lives. More than 65,000 customers trust MCA to provide carefully researched solutions for a safe, secure, and more efficient workplace. As your trusted advisor, we reduce the time and effort needed to research, install, and maintain the right solutions to improve your workplace.
Our team of certified professionals across the United States delivers a full suite of reliable technologies with a service-first approach. The MCA advantage is our extensive service portfolio to support the solution lifecycle from start to finish.