Verizon advances network technology at the big motorsports event in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS, NV – Verizon customers who attended the big motorsports event in Las Vegas had a lot to celebrate this past weekend. More than 100,000 fans attending the multiple day event used Verizon’s wireless network to share their racing experiences quickly and reliably. Verizon customers used 79.3 TB of data throughout the event, the equivalent of streaming a feature length movie almost 22,000 times.

“Our 5G Ultra Wideband network is built specifically to manage crowded events, providing reliability and massive capacity so customers can capture, share and connect throughout the experience,” said Phillip French, Vice President of Engineering and Operations at Verizon. “Our engineers worked tirelessly to upgrade the network and ensure our customers had the best possible experience while at the race.”

Network upgrades led to the checkered flag

Verizon engineers have been hard at work on upgrades and enhancements in and around the area where the motor racing took place and throughout the greater Las Vegas area over the last few years in preparation for the big event. These upgrades provided exceptional service for race day fans, and will support Las Vegas residents, tourists, public safety agencies and businesses throughout the community for years to come.

Verizon has deployed 5G Ultra Wideband service in many areas adding coverage and capacity to serve customers throughout Las Vegas. 5G service using Verizon’s recently acquired C-band spectrum, is deployed throughout the Las Vegas Metro, throughout the area where the motor racing event took place, including the paddock area, throughout the grandstand and along the track, and throughout key hotels in the area. The team also deployed a new full-service cell site that supports both 4G and 5G service along the Harry Reid airport runways.

In addition to adding more 5G Ultra Wideband service using C-band spectrum, Verizon also deployed 5G Ultra Wideband service using Millimeter Wave (mmWave), its premium, high band spectrum which enables extremely fast speeds and provides massive capacity. mmWave is deployed in our high demand areas such as the Las Vegas Strip, Fremont Street, on small cell towers covering the main entrance, and the Bellagio grandstands.

Engineers also deployed temporary cell sites to provide additional coverage and capacity, adding high performance to the Henderson executive airport, the entrance, stages, grandstand and VIP areas.

Test Force engineers walked miles in and around the activities, relentlessly testing the network to ensure service for Verizon customers, while a command center monitored and responded to activities 24×7 throughout the weekend.

Network Slicing demo showed exceptional performance for streaming content in a high data-usage environment.

During the event, Verizon engineers created a network slice and enabled race car driver Lando Norris, social media influencer Tanner Foust and other content creators to livestream about the festivities using a Verizon beta application called Mobile Creator Studio. Lando Norris used the creator application to livestream HD video on a Verizon 5G mobile device while he gave a tour of the McLaren garage. Tanner Foust leveraged the same application to livestream while walking the streets of Las Vegas. Video of the demo can be seen here.

Network slicing is a technology that allows customers to send data over virtual end-to-end 5G networks tailored to support specific application requirements, while also optimizing network performance to support all services. This capability, designed for network traffic on Verizon’s new cloud-native, containerized, virtualized standalone 5G core, will offer unprecedented levels of service agility, flexibility, and automated scalability. This unique 5G capability uses a virtualized network infrastructure to dynamically match network performance characteristics to specific application requirements, while optimizing the network performance to support all services.

Throughout this demo, despite record-breaking data usage on the Verizon network, the network slice provided the low-latency, high-throughput mobility service needed for reliable, responsive live streaming of the event.