The fifth generation of the mobile radio standard offers services for other areas of application in addition to the much-noticed mobile radio application with increased data rates - including the operation of campus networks in areas of the manufacturing industry. The most important services are

- eMBB (enhanced Mobile Broadband) is the further development of 4G in terms of increased data rates and is therefore suitable for video streaming or augmented reality, for example.

- mMTC (massive Machine Type Communications) enables applications with a particularly large number of sensors at a base station. This is what the terms Industry 4.0 or IoT stand for.

- uRLLC (ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication) enables particularly short latency times with very high availability. Areas of application are therefore production automation or driverless transport systems. This 5G class is particularly interesting for setting up networks on company-owned sites (campus networks) with their own base stations and an exclusive 100 MHz frequency range in the 3.7 to 3.8 GHz band that has not been allocated to mobile network operators. This allows companies to operate their own 5G networks to optimize their processes, such as the networking of driverless transport systems (AGVs).

A section of the 5G-Industry Campus Europe at the Melaten Campus of RWTH Aachen University.

© 5G-Industry Campus Europe

The project described here used the 5G-Industry Campus Europe with 5G technology from Ericsson at the Melaten Campus of RWTH Aachen University. The 5G-Industry Campus Europe is operated by the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT and funded by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI).

Functional safety with 5G

Evaluation of the use cases with regard to the need for functional safety

© FIR at the RWTH Aachen

5G use cases in manufacturing that require functional safety can be divided into classes. The four use case classes presented below were identified through literature research, interviews with providers of corresponding device technology and discussions with companies interested in modern communication and divided into four classes: condition monitoring, cross-location tracking & tracing, mobile vehicles (robots) and infrastructure retrofits.

Use case 1: Condition monitoring

To date, the mobile vehicle brakes when it approaches a 'blind spot area'. Functionally safe communication between the AGV and its surroundings would bring great advantages here.

© Demo factory Aachen

In production, unexpected defects lead to delays or even downtime, usually with high follow-up costs. Condition monitoring refers specifically to the condition monitoring of the machines used in order to prevent their sudden and, above all, unplanned failure. An effective countermeasure here is the recording of relevant condition values using suitable sensors - for example for sound recording - to detect atypical deviations from normal operating behavior at an early stage. This procedure - applied to an entire production line - requires a large number of sensors and the transport of large amounts of data and therefore a network with many participants whose communication must take place without interfering with other connections. 5G is the ideal basic technology for this.

Use case 2: Cross-location track & trace

The highly variable market dynamics require manufacturing companies to reliably track their products along the entire supply chain. This also means integrating all suppliers and their production facilities into a central system. This challenge can be solved by implementing Auto-ID technologies in combination with mobile communication technologies such as 5G.
Another application in this class is the tracking of stocks in a warehouse used by several customers. A shared tracking & tracing solution based on 5G could solve this problem.

Use case 3: Mobile vehicles

The 'mobile vehicles' class includes both use cases with only one fully autonomous vehicle in a dynamic environment and applications with several autonomously driven vehicles that transport material in a dynamic environment. The challenge in a flexible production environment relevant here is to adapt quickly to changing environmental conditions. This is also an application scenario for 5G.

Use case 4: Retrofitting existing infrastructures

There are three scenarios when retrofitting an existing infrastructure for 5G use:

1. existing sensor or actuator systems are retrofitted by integrating a radio module of the latest mobile technology.

2. inadequate communication infrastructures in outdated production facilities without a corresponding IT infrastructure are upgraded.

3. information multiplexing is realized.

Safety assessment

Elena Eberhardt is Business Development & Marketing Manager at Schildknecht.

© Schildknecht

The use case classes described have very different requirements in terms of the functional safety needed in each case. Four requirements - response time, availability, security and integration into a 5G network - were defined in order to determine a suitable functional safety use case for the project. The fulfillment of the defined requirements for the individual use cases was evaluated in interviews with industry experts. The use cases are shown in the table on page 1: The 'Autonomous vehicles' use case shows the highest need for functional safety and was therefore selected for investigation as part of the project.