Enterprise Campus Private 5G
- Martin James
- 10 hours ago
- 2 min read
Centralised timing + engineered PTP across a shared network
Sector: Multi-building enterprise campus private 5G
Challenge: Campus policy prohibited new rooftop antennas on several buildings
Network reality: Shared IT switching, varying loads, mixed east-west traffic
Starting position
The private 5G team needed to support multiple indoor coverage zones. Several BBUs/O-DUs were placed in different buildings where:
Rooftop GNSS was disallowed
Installing long antenna runs was impractical
“Timing switches everywhere” was not budgeted
Timebeat deployment strategy
1) Build one “timing core” site
A single approved building hosted the timing reference:
GNSS-fed Timebeat timing appliance
redundant power and network uplinks
2) Engineer the campus transport for timing (without rebuilding it)
Instead of demanding a full telecom timing network, the approach was:
Dedicated VLAN and QoS for timing flows
Controlled path selection (documented switching path)
Removal of avoidable asymmetry (same forward/reverse route where possible)
Telecom timing concepts like boundary/transparent clocks are often cited as mechanisms to limit PDV/asymmetry in fronthaul. Where campus switches didn’t support timing features, Timebeat’s stability techniques helped maintain usable synchronisation anyway.
3) Validate against the actual 5G requirement
Testing focused on:
Stability during normal utilisation
Stability during peak IT activity (backups, large file transfers)
Recovery after link events
Result (operational outcomes)
Private 5G zones were brought online without waiting for rooftop permissions.
The customer avoided “GNSS everywhere” costs and reduced installation risk.
Timing became an engineered service with clear operational guardrails (what changes are safe, what triggers re-validation).
Why this matters
Enterprise campuses want private 5G, but they don’t want to become timing experts.
This case demonstrates a pragmatic model: centralise absolute time, distribute it with engineered PTP, and make the performance robust enough for real enterprise traffic.