Towards Unified Automation Platform for Industry 4.0 realization using Private 5G Networks

Abstract

Private 5G had become de-facto technology for realizing Industry 4.0 to have a whole new user experience for industries interconnecting all the objects, machines, and humans to realize the use cases covering factory floors and supply chain warehouses. The automation developed to realize Industry 4.0 heavily depends on communication technology, the applications such as augmented or virtual reality require incredibly high data rates, motion control/robotics have rigorous requirements in terms of reliability/ latency, and wireless sensor devices require more massive machine-type connectivity. Private 5G networks are an essential means of achieving high speed, reliability, low latency, and secured connections for realizing Industry 4.0/5.0. However, the complexity of commissioning private 5G Networks, technical skills and expertise required to manage the Private 5G network and integrate them with the legacy systems and networks are the barriers to deploying private 5G networks for industries.  The most common approach for enterprise to private 5G adoption is to look for one-stop solution providers who can provide a common platform for end-to-end industry 4.0/5.0 automation covering the industrial devices, edge platforms, Private 5G and vertical industry applications that could be deployed on-premises in the Edge and as well in the cloud. This paper is concerned with studying and doing a comparative analysis of the existing Industry 4.0 automation solutions using private 5G which provides end-to-end industry 4.0/5.0 automation and assessing the gaps in existing solutions and identifying the concepts to develop a unified automation platform.