• Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport has deployed Ericsson private 5G across its five-square-mile campus, including runways, taxiways, and gate areas
  • Early uses include wireless video on airport trams and dozens of connected vehicles that need to stay online while moving around the airfield

The fact

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport has deployed a private 5G network from Ericsson across its five-square-mile campus. The Metropolitan Airports Commission, which owns and operates MSP, said the network covers indoor areas as well as runways, taxiways and gates and operates separately from public cellular and Wi-Fi networks.

The airport is using it for video systems, common-use ticketing equipment, staff tablets and dozens of vehicles fitted with Ericsson Cradlepoint routers. One early deployment connects Axis Communications cameras on airport trams. Those cameras previously relied on wired connections, while private 5G allows video to remain available as the trams move. MSP said it chose the network instead of expanding Wi-Fi or adding more fibre for these uses. Insight Enterprises manages the Ericsson system, while Pierson Wireless handled deployment and installation.

The assessment

Airports are awkward places to keep moving equipment online. Wi-Fi can work well inside terminals, but vehicles, trams and other equipment cross large outdoor areas and move between coverage points. Running new fibre solves a different problem: it works for fixed equipment, not something travelling around an airfield.

That is why the tram cameras and connected vehicles are more useful than the usual claims made around private 5G. They show what MSP is already doing with the network. Cameras can send video without a fixed cable, while airport vehicles can reach operational applications as they move around the site. The Cradlepoint routers can also use public cellular when needed.

For BTW readers, MSP offers a fairly straightforward example of where private 5G can fit. The airport is not replacing every cable or Wi-Fi connection. It is using cellular coverage for equipment that needs to move, while keeping the network under its own control.

What to watch

MSP plans to add more uses and could eventually open the network to airlines, concessionaires and other airport partners. Watch whether those organisations actually join, and whether more cameras, vehicles or operational systems move onto private 5G. That would show the network growing beyond a set of airport-owned applications into shared infrastructure used by more of the businesses working on the site.