Nokia has expanded its private 4G/5G test lab facility, called ‘Lab-as-a-Service’, to validate third-party industrial equipment and devices connecting on its Digital Automation Cloud (DAC) and Modular Private Wireless (MPW) private LTE (4G) and 5G network solutions. The service, free to customers, supports device testing at Nokia’s test labs or at customers’ own premises. Nokia is to open a new test lab in Bangalore, in India; it already has test facilities in Europe, Japan, South Korea, and the US.
The new testing capabilities are intended to help customers assess how industrial equipment will function on its DAC and MPW networks in their facilities, and how their Industry 4.0 use cases will operate. The idea is they can play with componentry to get the most of their cellular investments and change planning. Device validation consists of standardised testing packages, said Nokia. “Enterprises can ensure any device functions well within a Nokia private wireless environment, and guarantee they meet the performance requirements of any use case,” it said.
A statement from the Finnish vendor implied testing for Industry 4.0 uses cases for autonomous robots, zero-fault manufacturing, and predictive maintenance. Its test lab facility offers support for chipset makers, device makers, solution developers, and mobile operators, as well as enterprises, and other partners and users looking to add new elements to their devices and networks. It said the new device validation capabilities “complement an already extensive range of services” – without specifying what its existing solution set covers.
Stephan Litjens, vice president of enterprise campus edge solutions of Nokia, said: “Nokia is committed to supporting enterprise customers to achieve their digitalisation goals in the most intuitive ways. Device validation will be an essential part of Lab-as-a-Service, allowing them to accelerate service adoption. Enterprises will be able to experiment with devices and use cases, with no up-front investment, to see how they deliver the greatest value from their operations over private wireless networks.”
