Using private 5G Standalone in industrial automation emboldens key use cases, including AGVs, connected workers and untethered industrial assets
The idea of bringing private cellular, both 4G and 5G, into the world of heavy industry has long been alluring to the telecoms sector. From the perspective of the industrial end user, however, it has been a tough sell given the business-critical nature of wired assets, organizational differences between information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT), and a slow-growing device ecosystem. Nokia and Rockwell Automation, collaborating to bring together their respective areas of expertise, see an opportunity to accelerate cellular-enabled industrial transformation.
In September, the two companies continued their strategy of delivering proven solutions to the industrial sector that bring private 5G Standalone (SA) into complex industrial environments. The focus in the United States is to support industrial customers with shared access to 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum. With the larger goal of allowing customers to use Ethernet/IP connections with private 5G, Nokia and Rockwell Automation put together a test bed to validate wireless network features and functionality. Using a Nokia AirScale baseband and radios, and an MX Industrial Edge server, testing showed “no special tuning or configuration was needed on the Nokia equipment” aside from typical IP address assignment and network setup…”Everything worked out of the box,” according to the companies.
Rockwell Automation’s Matt Hoover, Global Product Manager for Wireless and IIoT Products, told RCR Wireless News during Mobile World Congress Las Vegas that the primary challenges to bringing 5G into industrial environments are around cost, complexity and device availability. But via its technology partnership with Nokia, he described how Rockwell is testing private 5G related to the following use cases:
—High speed edge-to-cloud connectivity for real-time data transmission, and reliable coverage for cloud-hosted artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions
—Connected workers using 5G-compatible handsets and tablets can access mobile applications, including analytics, digital twins, augmented reality and more
—Mobile asset applications—particularly automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) that require both mobility and fast, reliable handover
—Untethering stationary, low latency industry assets thereby increasing operational agility and reducing time needed for retooling on the shop floor.
Nokia Head of Enterprise Partner Business for Mobile Networks in North America Alexander an Overveld reflected on Nokia’s focus on the private cellular market—more than 795 customers and 1,000 networks, including more than 161 for manufacturing companies—and said, at this point, it’s a “proven technology…Why I like the collaboration a lot is because the insight into OT—how the network from a wireline perspective…how that behaves—that’s an insight that Rockwell knows very, very well.”
He continued: “we really benefit mutually from the knowledge and experience each other has in our own industries.” Van Overveld said the work with Rockwell Automation lets the two firms pre-configure network solutions so, from the customer perspective, it’s essentially pre-built. “You don’t want a network that actually does everything for everybody…You want to build a network which is scalable and which can be deployed in a way that it actually fits that particular target user.”
For more information:
- See Nokia and Rockwell Automation at Rockwell’s Automation Fair at Anaheim, CA this November. Click here for further details about this event and how to register.
- Nokia and Rockwell drive wireless innovation | Nokia
- Digital Transformation through 5G standalone (SA) | Rockwell Automation | US Manufacturing | Nokia
