NTT Enables Research, Innovation and Education with New, Private 5G Network

NTT Ltd., a leading global IT infrastructure and services company, today announced a new, live Private 5G installation for a leading university in Germany. On the heels of the Private 5G collaboration NTT and Cisco announced together at Mobile World Congress 2023, the two companies have now moved from pilot phase to live deployment with a private 5G mobile network for the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen in Germany.

“We are very pleased that we were able to support RWTH Aachen University in setting up the high-performance network,” emphasizes Kai Grunwitz, Managing Director of NTT Ltd. in Germany. “The university has demonstrated its commitment to excellence with the campus network and is now a scientific pioneer of Private 5G in Germany. This quantum leap is made possible by the Cisco technology used in this project. By leveraging their advanced ORAN technology, the possibilities for future expansion and applications are endless.”

RWTH Achen University was in need of stronger on-campus connectivity, particularly in area with teams of scientists and students focusing on research. But they also needed complete visibility and control over network functionality. Private 5G networks work on a completely isolated frequency range and therefore offer the university the visibility and control they need, enabling them to independently control data and voice communication in buildings across campus. In addition, the mobile Private 5G network has created the perfect conditions for the university’s important research projects due to the high bandwidth, real-time data transmission and low latency. The team of scientists in each of the nine facilities on campus now benefit from optimal connectivity and interference-free digital applications for their work.

“The P5G network is a very important step into the future for RWTH Aachen University,” explains Frank Meeßen, Coordinator of the 5G activities at RWTH Aachen University. “Thanks to the private radio range, we guarantee interference-free connectivity and can optimally implement our scientific applications. Our project partners have optimally implemented our high standards and created a network that we can even use flexibly by moving individual antennas.”

NTT, together with Cisco Systems and Airspan Networks, is leveraging ORAN technology to implement the campus network. In contrast to traditional radio access networks, the Open RAN approach is not tied to a specific manufacturer and offers greater flexibility. The modular architecture processes data in software instead of on chips making it particularly suitable for research projects. RWTH Aachen University will use the P5G network for various research initiatives, including an EU-funded robot project, location-based emergency route planning, and the use of real-time data transmission in hospital operating rooms. In addition, the university is currently evaluating the possibility of using the campus network as an alternative to WLAN in the future.

“We are very pleased that RWTH Aachen University is once again a pioneer and is also taking a big step forward when it comes to digitization in Germany,” explains Rüdiger Wölfl, Channel Leader at Cisco Germany. “Together with NTT, we have built a private 5G network that gives RWTH all the capabilities for a fast network, resilient IT security and modern hybrid work environments. We are very proud to accompany the university on this journey by building a P5G network.”

About RWTH Aachen University

Thinking the Future. With its 260 institutes in nine faculties, RWTH Aachen University is among the leading European scientific and research institutions. About 47,000 students in more than 150 courses of study are currently registered at the University, including 12,000 international students from 138 countries. Teaching and learning at RWTH is first and foremost application-oriented. Its graduates are therefore sought-after as junior executives and leaders in business and industry. National rankings and international assessments attest to the RWTH graduates’ marked ability to handle complex tasks, to solve problems constructively in team work and to take on leadership roles. It is therefore not surprising that many board members of German corporate groups studied at RWTH Aachen University.

About NTT Ltd.

As part of NTT DATA, a USD 30 billion IT services provider, NTT Ltd. is a leading IT infrastructure and services company serving 65% of the Fortune Global 500 and more than 75% of the Fortune Global 100. We lay the foundation for organizations’ edge-to-cloud networking ecosystem, simplify the complexity of their workloads across multicloud environments, and innovate at the edge of their IT environments where networks, cloud and applications converge. We offer tailored infrastructure and ensure consistent best practices in design and operations across all of our secure, scalable and customizable data centers. On the journey towards a software-defined future, we support organizations with our platform-delivered infrastructure services. We enable a connected future. Visit us at services.global.ntt

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in technology that powers the Internet. Cisco inspires new possibilities by reimagining your applications, securing your data, transforming your infrastructure, and empowering your teams for a global and inclusive future. Discover more on The Newsroom and follow us on Twitter at @Cisco.

Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Cisco’s trademarks can be found at www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company.