Private 5G for NATO: five use cases at DiBaX 2026

SMA-RTY took part in NATO's Digital Backbone Experimentation 2026 (DiBaX 2026), held in Latvia from 19 to 30 October under the leadership of NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT). The event gathered 22 allied nations and more than 60 industry partners, supported by the Latvian Ministry of Defence and National Armed Forces, with LMT Defence as technical integrator.

SMA-RTY joined the experimentation together with the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) and brought five use cases built on its private standalone 5G network, NGCI (Next-Generation Communication Infrastructure), each aimed at a concrete operational need.

This year's experimentation focused on three areas: rapid deployment through 5G network slicing, continuous communications with failover between different paths, and passive object detection using 5G infrastructure. The scenarios were designed to prepare for grey-zone incidents, such as drone intrusions or undersea cable damage in the Baltic Sea, which test the Alliance without reaching the threshold of Article 5.

A recurring question across the event was how different technologies, networks and systems can work together so that communications keep running when conditions get difficult.

NCIA is NATO's technology and cyber hub, and one of the NATO entities involved in DiBaX 2026.

SMA-RTY's participation was built in collaboration with the Agency, so that the use cases could be tried against the needs and systems NATO works with every day, and not in isolation.

The activities also involved SHAPE J6, the Cyberspace Division of Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, which oversees communication and information systems and cyberspace, including their security, for NATO's Allied Command Operations. A further point of reference was the Multinational Collaboration on 5G (MN5G), a project enabled by NCIA in which Italy, Spain and Türkiye work together on military applications of 5G, from interoperability and spectrum to security architectures.

NGCI (Next-Generation Communication Infrastructure) is compact, easy-to-deploy and standalone, which means it works as an independent island of connectivity. For each use case, SMA-RTY studied the operational need and configured the network around it, instead of adapting the mission to a fixed product.

The five use cases brought to Latvia addressed:

• Reliable team communication: push-to-talk voice over 5G, built on 3GPP mission-critical services and integrated with TAK (Team Awareness Kit) situational awareness software, with omnidirectional coverage around the site. It overcomes obstacles with better performance than conventional radio solutions.
• High-performance links between sites: integrated with NATO communication systems.
• Wider coverage: extends the network beyond the reach of its original cell with Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB), where additional nodes relay traffic wirelessly over 5G itself, without a dedicated cable to each new site.
• Smart prioritisation: adapts dynamically to keep the most important traffic at its best quality.
• Satellite connectivity: a non-terrestrial network (NTN) in which users in Latvia reached a 5G cell located in the Netherlands through a geostationary satellite, without relying on local ground infrastructure.

One of the declared goals of DiBaX 2026 was to move from showcasing technologies to adopting them, integrating capabilities into military and civilian structures, including dual-use applications.

The use cases brought by SMA-RTY follow this logic. Dependable team communication, long-distance links, wider coverage and satellite backup serve a defence unit as much as a civil protection team, a port or an industrial site, with the network configured around each of them.

The Digital Backbone eXperimentation (DiBaX) is a NATO experiment aimed at improving interoperability across domains through 5G and satellite communication technologies. The 2026 edition took place in Latvia and ended with NATO FUSE on 29 and 30 October, with plenaries, industry engagement and live field demonstrations.

SMA-RTY is an Italian emerging leader in the private standalone network market, offering cutting-edge O-RAN CU/DU and expertise in tailoring the application to the final user requirements. With a resilient and flexible network infrastructure, SMA-RTY’s Private 5G solution, called “Next Generation Communication Infrastructure” (NGCI), ensures reliable connectivity for mission-critical small cells in the industrial and defense sectors. Collaboration is at the heart of SMA-RTY’s approach, valuing partnerships that spark innovation and help us create cutting-edge solutions.

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