5Gang - "5G applied in industry"

 

However, the heterogeneity of industrial communication processes with their structures, different interfaces and data formats, some of which have grown over decades, currently represents a serious challenge for the efficient implementation of Industry 4.0 and other future concepts in industry. With its core network based on SDN and NFV technologies, 5G communication technology, which is currently under development, ideally supports these challenges from industry; however, its concrete application in such industrial environments is still largely unexplored.

The research project will provide the user with a user-friendly network management concept that uses 5G core network technologies to solve the described problems. Thus it advances the flexibilization of production processes, since it enables real-time, integrated information processing. The concept presented addresses both newly designed production systems and old systems, the updating and integration of which represents a particular challenge.

The main objective of the research project is therefore the research and development of an industrial communication concept which

• local industrial networks beyond a production site and efficiently and transparently networked with the involvement of suppliers and subcontractors,
• meets the requirements of future industrial scenarios and existing plants in terms of security, real-time capability, scalability and efficiency,
• provides service and application developers with a homogeneously addressable communication infrastructure that is free of media discontinuity, can be used widely without expert knowledge, and can be implemented and validated by users within a very short time,
• 5G concepts validated in industrial environment, shows opportunities of 5G for industry and influences 5G standards accordingly from the beginning.

Key technologies to achieve these main objectives are:

• Edge Cloud solutions using Software Defined Networking (SDN), Network Function Virtualization (NFV) to realize real-time capability and adapt to existing protocol families,
• Network encoding and compressed sensing for efficient and resource-saving support of time-critical and secure applications in highly meshed sensor networks.