Performance Benchmarking of 5G SA and NSA Networks for Wireless Data Transfer

This paper presents test results of the performance comparison of 5G standalone (SA) and non-standalone (NSA) networks in the context of gathering data of remote sensors and machines. The study evaluates key network characteristics such as latency, throughput, jitter and packet loss (for UDP protocol only) using standardized tests to gain insights into the impact of these factors on real-time and data-intensive communication. In addition, a range of communication protocols including OPC UA, Modbus, MQTT, AMQP, CoAP, EtherCAT and gRPC were tested to assess their efficiency, scalability and suitability with different send data sizes. By conducting experiments in a controlled hardware environment, we have analyzed the impact of the 5G architecture on protocol behavior and measured the transmission performance at different data sizes and connection configurations. Particular attention is paid to protocol overhead, data transfer rates and responsiveness, which are crucial for industrial automation and IoT deployments. The results show that SA networks consistently offer lower latency and more stable performance, where robust and low-latency data transfer is essential. In contrast, lightweight IoT protocols such as MQTT and CoAP demonstrate reliable operation in both SA and NSA environments due to their low overhead and adaptability. These insights are equally important for time-critical industrial protocols such as EtherCAT and OPC UA, where stability and responsiveness are crucial for automation and control. The study highlights current limitations of 5G networks in supporting both remote sensing and industrial use cases, while providing guidance for selecting the most suitable communication protocols depending on network infrastructure and application requirements. Moreover, the results indicate directions for configuring and optimizing future 5G networks to better meet the demands of remote sensing systems and Industry 4.0 environments.