Ericsson demonstrates portable 5G core for emergency operations
By James Pearce
Jun 29, 2026
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James Pearce, TelecomTV (00:05):
I'm delighted to be joined today by Filiberto Pagani, and he's going to talk us through Ericsson's Ultra Compact Core. Over to you — let's find out about it.
Filiberto Pagani, Ericsson (00:12):
Sure, thanks James. The Ultra Compact Core that you see here on display is one of the latest products that we have developed at Ericsson, with the aim to address the mission-critical network domain and in particular defense and public safety. It's a compact core — or a "core-in-a-box," if you prefer — because it is ready to be interconnected with a radio unit and an antenna in order to provide connectivity, whichever connectivity you might require.
(00:48):
The driving forces inspiring the development of the product are, first, 3GPP — because 3GPP has fully endorsed mission-critical networks and it is an opportunity for the industry to leverage something common between the mission-critical application and the device, so the whole ecosystem can evolve thanks to the direction that has been set by 3GPP.
(01:18):
Then another important aspect is that CSPs nowadays are mainly focused on providing connectivity in relation to subscriber density, and they don't pay too much attention to covering every single corner of the country. For mission-critical network operators, it's different — because they need to be ready to cope with emergencies, with war unfortunately, and with networks that could be destroyed by the enemy. So you have to be prepared to restore connectivity, because connectivity gives you the chance to deploy drones, to deploy cameras, and thanks to all the data coming from these devices you can also easily restore situational awareness.
(02:09):
So from a command and control centre, you can get all the information that is needed to coordinate an emergency.
(02:19):
The solution is based on Ericsson's Dual-Mode 5G Core that we are delivering to our customers, so both EPC and 5GC are part of the solution. The technology and the software is exactly the same, with the only exception that the software has been tailored in order to fit into these two servers that we have here. The two servers have a one-plus-one setup — if one server goes down, the other one is ready to take over without service discontinuity. And the solution is fully pre-integrated and pre-verified by Ericsson, so as it is, it's ready to be put into operation.
(03:07):
At the same time, since the industry is also looking for small form-factor solutions, we have also developed another product called the UCC application. This UCC application is the software kit that we are ready to share with specialised defense system integrators, who can do the integration of this software into an even smaller solution in ruggedised hardware — and they can combine this software with a virtual router, a baseband, whatever the use case might demand.
(03:52):
What is common between the two solutions is the integrated local management. Because most of the time, the solution will be deployed in order to handle an emergency, and during the emergency you cannot take for granted that there is reach-back connectivity. The local management — which is the GUI that you can see here — gives the opportunity for less-trained personnel to operate in the field and carry out the basic tasks that are going to be required.
(04:30):
In this picture, you have an example of the use cases that we are discussing with our customers. This is a naval base scenario, and you can have UCC on a ship in order to share data with the harbour system — to provide all the data that is needed to reduce turnaround time. You can have management for the warehouse where you pick and move goods as they are needed. And finally you can have situational awareness where the command and control centre, with specialised personnel, can dispatch instructions to the people on the harbour to provide the sanitary and medical support and all the repair work that might be required when the ship returns from battle.
James Pearce, TelecomTV (05:25):
This is really fascinating stuff. Thank you so much for running us through that today.
Filiberto Pagani, Ericsson (05:29):
You are welcome.
I'm delighted to be joined today by Filiberto Pagani, and he's going to talk us through Ericsson's Ultra Compact Core. Over to you — let's find out about it.
Filiberto Pagani, Ericsson (00:12):
Sure, thanks James. The Ultra Compact Core that you see here on display is one of the latest products that we have developed at Ericsson, with the aim to address the mission-critical network domain and in particular defense and public safety. It's a compact core — or a "core-in-a-box," if you prefer — because it is ready to be interconnected with a radio unit and an antenna in order to provide connectivity, whichever connectivity you might require.
(00:48):
The driving forces inspiring the development of the product are, first, 3GPP — because 3GPP has fully endorsed mission-critical networks and it is an opportunity for the industry to leverage something common between the mission-critical application and the device, so the whole ecosystem can evolve thanks to the direction that has been set by 3GPP.
(01:18):
Then another important aspect is that CSPs nowadays are mainly focused on providing connectivity in relation to subscriber density, and they don't pay too much attention to covering every single corner of the country. For mission-critical network operators, it's different — because they need to be ready to cope with emergencies, with war unfortunately, and with networks that could be destroyed by the enemy. So you have to be prepared to restore connectivity, because connectivity gives you the chance to deploy drones, to deploy cameras, and thanks to all the data coming from these devices you can also easily restore situational awareness.
(02:09):
So from a command and control centre, you can get all the information that is needed to coordinate an emergency.
(02:19):
The solution is based on Ericsson's Dual-Mode 5G Core that we are delivering to our customers, so both EPC and 5GC are part of the solution. The technology and the software is exactly the same, with the only exception that the software has been tailored in order to fit into these two servers that we have here. The two servers have a one-plus-one setup — if one server goes down, the other one is ready to take over without service discontinuity. And the solution is fully pre-integrated and pre-verified by Ericsson, so as it is, it's ready to be put into operation.
(03:07):
At the same time, since the industry is also looking for small form-factor solutions, we have also developed another product called the UCC application. This UCC application is the software kit that we are ready to share with specialised defense system integrators, who can do the integration of this software into an even smaller solution in ruggedised hardware — and they can combine this software with a virtual router, a baseband, whatever the use case might demand.
(03:52):
What is common between the two solutions is the integrated local management. Because most of the time, the solution will be deployed in order to handle an emergency, and during the emergency you cannot take for granted that there is reach-back connectivity. The local management — which is the GUI that you can see here — gives the opportunity for less-trained personnel to operate in the field and carry out the basic tasks that are going to be required.
(04:30):
In this picture, you have an example of the use cases that we are discussing with our customers. This is a naval base scenario, and you can have UCC on a ship in order to share data with the harbour system — to provide all the data that is needed to reduce turnaround time. You can have management for the warehouse where you pick and move goods as they are needed. And finally you can have situational awareness where the command and control centre, with specialised personnel, can dispatch instructions to the people on the harbour to provide the sanitary and medical support and all the repair work that might be required when the ship returns from battle.
James Pearce, TelecomTV (05:25):
This is really fascinating stuff. Thank you so much for running us through that today.
Filiberto Pagani, Ericsson (05:29):
You are welcome.
Please note that video transcripts are provided for reference only – content may vary from the published video or contain inaccuracies.
Filiberto Pagani, Mission Critical Networks Solution Manager, Ericsson
Ericsson’s Ultra Compact Core addresses mission-critical network requirements for defence and public safety operations, combining evolved packet core (EPC) and 5G core (5GC) capabilities in a compact two-server setup with one-plus-one redundancy for service continuity. Filiberto Pagani explains that it is designed for scenarios where traditional CSP coverage may be inadequate or destroyed, enabling rapid deployment of connectivity for drones, cameras and situational awareness tools.
Recorded May 2026
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