South Korean Internet Giant Offers Glimpse of a 5G Private Network Future

SEONGNAM, SOUTH KOREA--At the new headquarters of South Korea's largest internet company, a fleet of self-driving robots whirl around delivering coffee, lunchboxes and mailed packages. More than 100 of these autonomous robots, which look a bit like the droid R2-D2 from the "Star Wars" films and go by the name "Rookie," are operational at Naver high-rise office building. The tower is specifically designed with bump-free flooring and handle-free doors that open via sensors to help the robots move around more easily. Powering the robots is a critical technology: a private 5G network that gives them a stable connection to the cloud, or virtual server, where their computing takes place, and where each unit's learned intelligence is stored and shared. Having the hardware for this in the cloud keeps the robots small and less expensive to build, key requirements for broader adoption.