Practical 5G applications in industrial automation
Author : Rolf Horn | Applications Engineer | Digi-Key Electronics
01 March 2022
![The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) unites telecommunications standards organisations to make cellular telecommunications technologies as cross & backwards compatible as possible. [logo source: 3GPP]](../../global/showimage/Article/201060/ "The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) unites telecommunications standards organisations to make cellular telecommunications technologies as cross & backwards compatible as possible. [logo source: 3GPP]")
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) unites telecommunications standards organisations to make cellular telecommunications technologies as cross & backwards compatible as possible. [logo source: 3GPP]
Wireless communications have become increasingly critical to industrial automation networks. Now, as Rolf Horn, Applications Engineer at electronics component distributor, Digi-Key explains here, fifth-generation (5G) cellular communication is being widely heralded as the key wireless technology to advance the fourth industrial revolution: Industry 4.0 or the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)...
The full version of this article was originally featured in the March 2022 issue of EPDT magazine [read the digital issue] and the Digi-Key Article Library. And sign up to receive your own copy each month.
Some sources even suggest that 5G will be key to making consumer and other non-industrial IoT installations ubiquitous, in large part because 5G facilitates the connection of staggering numbers of devices, wherever those devices happen to be located.
But will 5G replace the array of wireless standards currently in operation? And will 5G come to outperform Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and IEEE 802.15.4 (the standard covering low-data-rate WPANs, or wireless personal area networks, forming the basis of Zigbee and Thread, among others) in applications where these other technologies currently lead? Or is 5G simply an improved technology for the few automated applications where older cellular technologies are used? What are 5G’s performance advantages… and to what extent are these already leverageable?...
To understand the answers to these questions, first consider how 5G differs from other cellular and non-cellular communications. 5G — currently being rolled out for mobile phone and industrial networks — builds on previous 2G, 3G and 4G generations of digital cellular technology.
There was never a 1G, as 2G’s precursor was an analogue wireless telephone technology having little in common with today’s networks. With 2G came the first digital technology and encrypted phone and short message service (SMS) communications. Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) standards define 2G circuit-switched networks allowing full-duplex voice calls. Over the years, 2G networks were further enhanced by the first General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) and then Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE). GRPS- and EDGE-enabled transmission of general purpose data packets for internet connectivity, with increasing data rates, which is why networks with these capabilities are sometimes called 2.5G and 2.75G technologies respectively.
3G further improved data transfer rates — even to the point of enabling video calls. Associated standards include CDMA2000 and various forms of High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA).
Next came 4G, and even greater data transfer rates via the Long Term Evolution (LTE) and WiMax standards, which utilise multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) transmissions.
5G evolved from 4G, with the first commercially available 5G network products released in late 2018. Of highest interest to private and commercial users is how 5G networks must be able to support data rates of several tens of Mb/sec for tens of thousands of users. They must also be able to provide a 1 Gbit/sec connection to tens of people within a given office.
![Various forms of 5G have seen rapid global adoption [image source: Design World]](../../global/showimage/Article/201061/ "Various forms of 5G have seen rapid global adoption [image source: Design World]")
Various forms of 5G have seen rapid global adoption [image source: Design World]
There are other characteristics of 5G that are most relevant to industrial automation applications. More specifically, 5G networks must allow hundreds of thousands of simultaneous connections, with very low latency and highly reliable coverage. These features are key to the massive sensor deployment
associated with IIoT and machine control applications.
Spectrum & millimetre wave data communications...
Massive connectivity with 5G in industrial...
5G latency: published values versus actual performance...
Other 5G benefits: low energy & high reliability...
Alternative non-cellular wireless connectivity...
Conclusion...
In short, 5G and other forms of secure and flexible wireless connectivity will enable the sensor density required for big data analytics to fully characterise production processes, optimise maintenance programmes, coordinate material flows and enable autonomous robot collaborations.
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