The Convergence of Private 5G and Industry 4.0: Transforming Manufacturing

14/03/2024

Industry 4.0 represents a paradigm shift revolutionising how we conceive and execute industrial processes. In recent years, we observed a tighter intersection between private 5G and Industry 4.0: a technological synergy representing a game-changer for the manufacturing sector. As we stand on the brink of a new era, the fusion of Industry 4.0’s intelligent automation and data exchange with the transformative power of private 5G networks promises unparalleled advancements. From ultra-low latency to massive device connectivity, we unravel how 5G’s capabilities not only align with but propel the adoption of Industry 4.0 solutions, unleashing a wave of innovation, efficiency, productivity, and competitiveness in the manufacturing landscape. This advancement will result in more sustainable and green manufacturing environments where wireless communications technologies assisted by artificial intelligence will play a significant role.

The 6GSMART project (financed by the NextGeneration EU funds) aims to pave the way for deploying and testing a private 5G network with extreme performance indicators and an advanced data analysis platform. To respond to the strict requirements of the industrial use cases of the project, Neutroon provides the Nomad 5G: an all-in-one private network solution which includes the required modules (e.g. radio access networks, mobile edge computing resources, 5G core network) to deploy a private 5G network and edge computing platform in a matter of minutes.


Moreover, the private network will integrate 5G and WiFi-6 in a multi-radio access technologies solution to support extreme Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in real manufacturing environments. This integration encompasses multiple challenges, such as implementing network traffic aggregation and scheduling between both technologies. In this sense, Multi-Path TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) is considered to transmit sub-flows through different technologies. Additionally, Neutroon will contribute to defining a data pipeline strategy for network data collection. It will allow the further implementation of AI-based network management and diagnostics.

Neutroon has quite an extensive experience working with system integrators in industrial environments, offering connectivity services for different use cases. To extremely simplify the management of the private 5G networks and the orchestration of the edge applications, Neutroon offers its Cloud Platform (NCP), which supports vendor-agnostic private networks including an advanced data representation system. Finally, the achievements of the 6GSMART Project will help to democratize 5G private networks in the manufacturing sector.

Author: Rolando Guerra-Gómez PhD – Senior Researcher, Neutroon Technologies S.L.