VIAVI Solutions Inc. joins Blackpool private 5G project

VIAVI Solutions Inc. has joined ORBIT, the Orchestrated mobile Network for Blackpool intelligent transport project, which is funded by the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Innovate UK. The project addresses a system-level gap in private 5G for transport, centered on a standalone non-public 5G network across Blackpool's tramway and bus network, with a total budget of approximately $4.15 million.

Private 5G is increasingly recognized as essential to safer and more resilient transport. Operators, however, work within fragmented vendor ecosystems and have limited evidence that multi-vendor Open RAN components will perform together as a complete, procurable system. The ORBIT work focuses on that gap through integration and assurance.

Use cases include live CCTV streaming for incident management, multimedia delivery to onboard screens and a network slice for operational technology communications. VIAVI's Network Digital Twin, based on the TeraVM AI RAN Scenario Generator, will model Blackpool's tram and bus routes so that control routines can be refined and tested against highly realistic traffic scenarios before field trials.

The approach is described as validating performance, resilience and energy efficiency at system level, reducing technical risk and integration overhead before equipment reaches the street. The collaboration involves VIAVI, Blackpool Council, which leads ORBIT, the University of York and Hitachi Rail.

Ian Langley, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Wireless, Security and Applications at VIAVI, said: “The same approach to validating connectivity and AI-driven control before live deployment can be applied beyond ORBIT to other critical, distributed assets such as utilities, airports, ports, advanced manufacturing sites and other nationally significant infrastructure,”

Langley said: “ORBIT gives us a live reference case for applying our digital twin capabilities to network deployments across critical sectors to reduce cost and risk.” The project plans to deliver live demonstrators on Blackpool trams and buses, interoperability and assurance reports, and a replicable reference architecture.