At the 5G Campus of the Werner-von-Siemens Center in Berlin, autonomous industrial machines and robots were networked with a router. In addition to 5G standalone in the industrial spectrum at 3.7 Ghz, this also supports the so-called mmWave spectrum for the first time. With low latency times of three to four milliseconds RTT (round trip time) and a data rate of over 4 gigabits per second in download and 2 gigabits in upload, these millimeter waves are particularly suitable for data-intensive applications in the manufacturing industry. 5G mmWave communication is enabled by Telit Cinterion, a global provider offering end-to-end IoT solutions.

While customers are already using 5G campus networks in the so-called mid-band for many industrial applications, applications in the field of autonomous vehicles and manufacturing industry can now be realized. The special capability of mmWaves lies in its ability to transmit large amounts of data in real time. The frequency spectrum around 26 GHz is allocated exclusively to interested parties in Germany by the Federal Network Agency. It can currently only be used for local applications. "It is very important for our industrial customers to be able to upload data from the machines in order to analyze it in real time," explains Klaus Werner, Managing Director Business Customers Telekom Deutschland GmbH.

Autonomous robots at the Werner-von-Siemens Center

The 5G standalone campus network at the Werner-von-Siemens Center operates separately from Telekom's public mobile network. The entire infrastructure, from the antennas and active system technology to the core network, comes from Ericsson. Based on this network, a fleet of autonomously driving and operating robots works on various use cases in the center. The 5G millimeter waves come into play when the requirements for communication and data transmission increase, and therefore also when solving more complex tasks. For example, in a computer vision application: the robot picks up an order and checks whether the ordered goods are complete on the way to the next destination. If there is a discrepancy, it reorders the goods directly.