AT&T, Navy eye 5G to fast-track 'smart warehouse'

AT&T and the Navy have forged ahead on standing up a smart warehouse at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego through a series of demonstrations focused on 5G and its related capabilities.

During that event, the Navy used AT&T’s private 5G network at the base to evaluate how the radio access network for optimizing warehouse operations with increased data and lower latency.

One test focused on high-definition video surveillance, where an Internet Protocol-based camera connected to the AT&T network and delivered both HD-quality streaming and direct access to the user.

A second exercise looked at how 5G-enabled virtual and augmented reality could be used in military training, maintenance and prototyping applications along with operations.

AT&T’s private 5G network at the base delivered data throughput speeds of 3.9 gigabits per second with less than 10 milliseconds of latency when powering the demonstrations, the company said.

“The AT&T 5G-powered solution we’ve delivered at Naval Base Coronado is a first of its kind, high-performance, highly secure, and scalable private network solution,” Lance Spencer, AT&T client executive vice president for defense, said in a release.

“This is a key example of organizations coming together in a collaborative environment with our armed forces to explore the art of the possible in 5G,” added Amanda Toman, acting principal director of 5G-NextG initiatives at DOD.

Naval Base Coronado is home to several evaluations of potential use cases for 5G and related smart warehouse operations to support logistics missions as part of the Defense Department’s larger push for commercial network technologies.

In October 2020, DOD made $600 million awards for dual-use 5G experimentation and testing at five military sites including Naval Base Coronado.