By James Blackman

The Utah Inland Port Authority, the state-run logistics agency developing a dry port in the northwest of Salt Lake City and other undeveloped land in Salt Lake County, has said it will build and manage its own private 5G network as the “foundation” for a “more resilient, secure, and sustainable” supply chain in the western US.

Construction of the cellular setup, covering LTE and 5G, will be handled by Los Angeles based supply-chain specialist QuayChain Technologies, in partnership with core networking provider Athonet and edge compute provider Intel. The Wireless Industrial Group is also engaged.

The Utah Inland Port Authority has dubbed the new infrastructure as the Intelligent Crossroads Network (ICN), and said it will look to expand the project across the entire state. The inland port area in Utah, which remains in development, covers 16,000 acres. The Utah Inland Port Authority is positioned to oversee all logistics in the region.

It says the new development will “bring the largest economic opportunities in the history of this state”. A statement said: “Developing the ICN will help create new logistics jobs using technologies based on Industry 4.0 and 5G. It will also bridge the digital divide for many industries and essential workers that support a robust supply chain.”

QuayChain offers an industrial IoT platform for logistics companies; it has recruited Athonet and Intel, principally, to set the edge connectivity and compute infrastructure, tied to the CBRS band in the US, to plug into. The company cited use cases for “automated vehicles, equipment, visibility, and fintech” with rollout of the Utah port 5G network.

“With increasing demand and velocity, 5G can help address historical obstacles with the ability to support thousands of devices or sensors in a small area and reduce latency to capture data in real-time. ICN will connect artificial intelligence devices across the network, providing new and unique insights to cargo movements,” stated the port authority.

Executive director at the Utah Inland Port Authority, Jack Hedge commented: “Creating this new digital public-private partnership with QuayChain is the perfect way to build the digital infrastructure to achieve our goal of sustainable logistics across Utah. Having world-class connectivity combined with artificial intelligence solutions will enable greater operational efficiency, which is a key component to leading the transition of commercial fleets to clean energy which serves our environmental and community objectives.”

Chief operating officer at the Utah Inland Port Authority, Jill Flygare said: “We are finalizing the initial coverage area and solutions for Intelligent Cross Network with the long-term objective of expanding the ICN across Utah. We are committed to working with stakeholders across the state and the global supply chain to ensure the ICN offers the world-class digital infrastructure that Utah and our residents need for the future.”

Chief executive at QuayChain, Andrew Scott, said: “The challenges in the global supply chain over the last two years has highlighted the need for new approaches that address both business and environmental objectives without any trade-offs. QuayChain will enable the ICN and Utah’s supply chain to truly democratize data and power new partnerships and solutions, including automated vehicles, equipment, visibility, and fintech.”

Vice president for Intel’s network and edge group and general manager of its network business incubator division, Caroline Chan said: “Private wireless network and new edge computing-based applications at transportation hubs such as ports and across the supply chain will bring much-required optimization and efficiency in the transportation and logistics processes.”