5G has now been established as the fifth generation of the wireless standard. It offers enormous potential for industry. Our experts Dr. Jan Stefan Michels (Head of the Cross Divisional Functions area) and Dimitri Block (Technological Developer) provide an overview and outlook for the future.
What are the key advantages of Industrial 5G, compared to the older standards?
Jan Stefan Michels: “With Industrial 5G, local 5G campus networks can be operated in industrial environments and processes independently of public wireless networks. In addition, Industrial 5G offers better bandwidth, capacitance, latency and connectivity, compared to previous standards like 4G/LTE”.
What possibilities does this create for industrial environments?
Dimitri Block: “Industrial 5G facilitates wireless networking of machines, sensors, robots, control systems, and other devices used in factories, production systems, warehouses and other industrial equipment. With autonomous industrial 5G networks, operators maintain control of their communication infrastructure, guarantee data sovereignty, and meet highly specialised requirements”.
How is Weidmüller tackling this important future topic of 5G?
Jan Stefan Michels: “We have created our own 5G campus network at our production site in Detmold. To cover an area of over 1,000 square meters, two 5G base stations and a 5G core server were installed in a network cabinet. In comparison: four to six access points are required with Wi-Fi to cover the same area”.
Does Weidmüller offer its own 5G solutions?
Dimitri Block: “We consider ourselves a solution provider in the Industrial 5G area. We are making use of all of the knowledge gained from our own 5G campus network and our collaboration in different boards and research projects to develop our own 5G products and devices, which we will be offering to our customers”.
More information on Industrial 5G and our solutions, like our 5G application Note, is available here.