5G-Industry Campus Europe
Ericsson and Fraunhofer IPT created the 5G-Industry Campus Europe, the continent’s largest 5G research network, to jointly innovate the next generation of industrial IoT use-cases.
Highlights
The 5G-Industry Campus Europe, will allow Ericsson and Fraunhofer IPT to explore together with interested companies and research partners further areas in which 5G can be applied to improve productivity and efficiencies in manufacturing.
The research center will investigate the application scenarios in the field of production, covering topics like 5G sensors for monitoring and controlling highly complex manufacturing processes, mobile robotics, logistics and multisite production chains.
Create agility
Businesses need to move quickly in order to respond to changes in the market. Cellular solutions enable manufacturers to adapt their workflows to ensure effective and agile operations.
Optimize effectiveness
Connected facilities boost efficiency, productivity and accelerate time to market, all while improving fault detection and asset utilization. This also leads to less waste and energy consumption.
Limitless possibilities
The Ericsson-powered 5G research network offers a world of potential for industries, companies and research partners to transform factories and warehouses.
Background
Together Ericsson and Fraunhofer IPT launched the 5G-Industry Campus Europe with the intent of researching and creating the next generation of advanced manufacturing IoT use cases.
Being Europe’s largest industrial 5G research facility, the outdoor private networks at RWTH Aachen University in Germany covers an area of about 1km sq. Its indoor private networks cover an area of almost 7,000m sq.
The 5G research network unlocks possibilities to create smarter factories, transform the production of goods, their manufacturing and delivery, and connect warehouses with 5G powered IoT that completely overhauls their operations, making it agile, efficient and ready to make a better future.
In addition to Fraunhofer, project partners include the Research Institute for Rationalization (FIR) and the Machine Tool Laboratory, both of RWTH Aachen University.
Video courtesy of Fraunhofer IPT.
The challenge
The manufacturing industry needs a practical connectivity solution to advance to the next stage of the Industry 4.0 revolution - One that allows for high precision during production, machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, high bandwidth data transfers and the possibility to digitally transform productivity and performance from the ground up.
The project partners at 5G-Industry Campus Europe wanted to be able to investigate application scenarios in seven subprojects within the field of production. These include 5G sensors for monitoring and controlling highly complex manufacturing processes to mobile robotics, logistics and multisite production chains.
The solution
Fraunhofer IPT selected Ericsson as its private 5G networks supplier to set up the regional 5G research network - The “5G-Industry Campus Europe” research project.
The 5G research network operates with the following performance and feature criteria to enable existing and next generation industrial use-cases:
- 5G outdoor network of 1 km² at the RWTH Aachen Campus
- 5G-NSA (non-standalone) running at 3,7-3,8 GHz
- Simultaneous 4G network at 2,3 GHz as anchor band
- Data rates up to 10 Gbit/s
- Latency times below 1ms
- Operate numerous devices simultaneously in tightly defined radio cells
In order to ensure the direct transferability of the research results into real industrial applications, the network of the 5G-Industry Campus Europe is set up in the industry-relevant frequency range from 3.7 to 3.8 GHz.
The result
With a private cellular network from Ericsson powering the 5G-Industry Campus Europe, industrial partners have the access and ability to collectively study the practical applications of 5G in the modern production environment.
The campus’ facilities are equipped with state-of-the-art IT and production systems, offering a unique infrastructure to jointly research individual 5G and Internet of Things applications and develop the capabilities sooner.
Business outcome
The Ericsson powered 5G research network offers limitless possibilities for industries, companies and research partners to transform factories and warehouses. Housed inside the 5G-Industry Campus, the research network offers next-generation services and use-cases such as:
- Automated, wireless real-time process control
- Access to real-time data regardless of the location
- Quality data linked with process data
- Transmission of large datasets
- Improved precision and timing in machine cooperation
- A safer production environment.
