Microamp Shows Where mmWave Can Make Sense in Private 5G

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Most private 5G networks deployed today use mid-band spectrum. Frequencies around 3.5 GHz provide a useful compromise between coverage, capacity and device availability, which is why they have become the default choice for factories, ports, utilities and other enterprise environments.

Millimetre wave, or mmWave, has had a much more difficult journey. Despite being one of the technologies most closely associated with the original 5G vision, relatively few mobile operators have deployed mmWave extensively. Coverage is shorter, propagation is more challenging and, outside a handful of markets, the ecosystem of compatible devices remains limited.

Private networks present a rather different problem, however, and this is where the approach being taken by Microamp becomes interesting. Rather than treating mmWave simply as another mobile access layer, Microamp is targeting applications where very high capacity, low latency, directional connectivity and large amounts of spectrum provide a clear benefit. These include industrial connectivity, video, teleoperation, wireless backhaul, transport, mining and defence.

Microamp describes its solution as a standalone private 5G mmWave network designed for industrial and enterprise environments. Potential applications include cameras, industrial IoT, vehicles, robots, sensors and other high-bandwidth equipment. The company also places particular emphasis on uplink-heavy traffic, which is important because industrial networks can look very different from conventional consumer mobile networks.

A smartphone network is generally heavily downlink dominated. An industrial site containing large numbers of high-resolution cameras, machine-vision systems, robots or other sensors can generate very substantial amounts of data in the opposite direction. This is one area where having several hundred megahertz of mmWave spectrum available starts to become particularly useful.

Microamp's systems operate primarily in 3GPP bands n257 and n258, covering spectrum around 26 GHz and 28 GHz. Its CellBox One A200 is an all-in-one 5G SA mmWave gNodeB supporting up to 1.2 GHz of bandwidth, with the company specifying throughput above 7.5 Gbps and latency below 5 ms. These are vendor figures, but they illustrate the amount of capacity potentially available when very wide mmWave channels can be used.

The system can integrate the CU, DU and RU, while other deployment options allow functions to be centralised. The 5G Core can potentially run locally as well, allowing a relatively compact self-contained private network to be deployed.

Features supported across Microamp's portfolio also include Integrated Access and Backhaul, uplink-oriented configurations, mobility and 5G LAN.

Perhaps the more interesting opportunity, however, is using mmWave behind the access network rather than necessarily connecting every industrial device directly to it. A private network could use conventional sub-6 GHz spectrum for connecting devices while employing mmWave to provide high-capacity wireless backhaul between network nodes. This addresses one of the biggest practical problems facing mmWave: the device ecosystem.

If mmWave is used for backhaul, the end devices do not need to support 26 or 28 GHz. The mmWave radios are controlled infrastructure at either end of the link, while workers, sensors, machines and other equipment continue connecting using the much larger sub-6 GHz ecosystem.

Microamp has developed both conventional 5G backhaul approaches and an implementation using the 3GPP Release 16 Backhaul Adaptation Protocol, or BAP, allowing traffic from another cellular network to be transported over the mmWave infrastructure. This could be particularly attractive where installing fibre is expensive, disruptive or impractical.

Ports are one example. CCTV cameras, automated equipment and operational systems can generate substantial amounts of data across a large site. High-capacity wireless limks could provide connectivity to locations where extending fibre is difficult, while retaining sub-6 GHz coverage for ordinary devices.

Mining provides another interesting example because the network itself may need to move. As a mine progresses, access points or gNBs can be relocated closer to the active working area. Conventional point-to-point microwave backhaul may then need to be physically realigned. A more flexible point-to-multipoint mmWave architecture could potentially make it easier to move parts of the access network without repeatedly redesigning the transport network.

The same principle could apply to construction sites, temporary industrial facilities and other environments where infrastructure changes regularly.

Another important aspect of Microamp's approach is that industrial equipment does not necessarily need a native mmWave modem.

A mmWave CPE can terminate the 5G connection and provide Ethernet connectivity to cameras, machines or other equipment behind it. Microamp's outdoor CPE supports bands including n257 and n258 and provides high-speed Ethernet connectivity.

This is potentially important for private networks because existing industrial equipment can remain Ethernet-based while mmWave effectively becomes the wireless transport layer.

Microamp has also demonstrated 5G LAN over its mmWave network, allowing Layer 2 Ethernet traffic and existing VLAN structures to be carried across the 5G system. This is particularly relevant in industrial OT environments where enterprises may not want to redesign applications and network segmentation simply because part of the physical connectivity has become wireless.

There are already some practical examples of this type of technology being explored.

In Germany, Microamp deployed the 26 GHz mmWave network for the FlexShield project, which investigated resilient private 5G connectivity for logistics applications including the teleoperation of trucks and other transport vehicles.

The overall system combines connectivity around 3.7 GHz and 26 GHz, illustrating how future industrial private networks may increasingly consist of several connectivity layers rather than choosing one frequency band for everything.

Mid-band spectrum can provide general coverage and mobility, while mmWave can be added at selected locations where unusually high capacity or very low latency is required.

Another potentially useful model is the concept sometimes described as a data shower. Continuous mmWave coverage may not always be necessary. A train, vehicle, robot or drone could instead move into a relatively small mmWave coverage zone and transfer a very large amount of information in a short period. This might involve downloading software or maps, but industrial applications can equally involve uploading recorded video, images, diagnostics or sensor information.

A vehicle returning to a depot, for example, might automatically offload many gigabytes of operational data within seconds or minutes rather than maintaining a continuous high-capacity connection throughout its journey.

Railway depots, ports, logistics centres, airports and vehicle maintenance facilities could all potentially use this type of architecture.

Japan is particularly interesting in this respect because of its use of 28 GHz spectrum and its greater experience with mmWave deployments than many other markets. Railway and transport applications could be particularly well suited to strategically positioned high-capacity links rather than attempting to provide continuous mmWave coverage along an entire route.

Defence is another area where mmWave private networks are attracting interest. Microamp has developed portable mmWave networks intended for rapid deployment in tactical environments. The technology has been developed and tested through NATO DIANA, including trials at its 6G Test Centre in Oulu, and in May 2026 the UK Ministry of Defence awarded Microamp a contract to trial the technology for warfare development and operational experimentation.

Again, the requirements are very different from those of a public mobile network. The objective may be to create a relatively small bubble of extremely high-capacity connectivity for cameras, sensors, drones and other systems rather than providing wide-area coverage to thousands of smartphones. Highly directional transmission can also be useful in environments where interference, detection and jamming are important considerations.

None of this removes the fundamental limitations of mmWave. Propagation remains more difficult than at lower frequencies, obstacles can cause significant attenuation and cells generally cover smaller areas. Network design therefore needs to take account of the radio environment rather than treating 26 GHz as simply a faster version of 3.5 GHz.

The device ecosystem also remains a significant constraint. This is particularly important for conventional FWA. Although delivering broadband using mmWave is technically straightforward, the economics become difficult when the CPE has to compete with inexpensive sub-6 GHz alternatives. It is one reason specialist industrial and infrastructure applications may prove more attractive than trying to reproduce the mass-market FWA model.

The wider mobile market faces a similar problem. Only a relatively small number of operators have deployed mmWave extensively, which in turn reduces the incentive for manufacturers to produce a broad range of compatible devices.

Private networks partly change that equation. A factory does not necessarily need thousands of inexpensive mmWave smartphones. It might need ten high-capacity links connecting cameras, several wireless backhaul connections between gNBs, or a temporary multi-gigabit network around an automated production area. That is a very different business case.

The interesting question for mmWave may therefore no longer be whether it will become a ubiquitous 5G coverage layer. It probably will not. The more useful question is whether there are particular parts of industrial and private networks where several gigabits of wireless capacity, large amounts of spectrum and highly directional communications solve a problem better than fibre, microwave or conventional sub-6 GHz cellular.

Microamp's work suggests that backhaul, industrial video, teleoperation, mobile infrastructure, rapid data offload and specialised defence networks could be some of those places. Rather than needing mmWave everywhere, private networks may simply need it where mmWave makes sense.

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