5G Industrial Use Cases

THE CHALLENGE

Industrial companies create the products and services that drive daily life for businesses, consumers, and economies, but in a competitive business world they need to produce innovative products in an efficient and cost-effective way. To give a few examples: It is essential to modernize equipment on the manufacturing floor to increase both speed and economy of production. Meanwhile, expanding the capabilities of industrial robots to better collaborate with humans and be mobile means that, with quicker access to data, they can increase production performance and also be functionally safe and secure while operating within the factory. And to expand energy production with technologies such as wind farms, for more reliable and economical energy production, intensive monitoring and control of equipment in often remote landscapes is vital.

How can industrial equipment companies keep pace with the push to economize and modernize, to be more data-centric, and to provide safety and security in the face of constant innovation?

THE APPROACH

One technology that shows promise for increasing security, cost-effectiveness, performance, and actionable data is 5G technology. 5G is the fifth generation of mobile networking technology, following 4G and working on the same principles. Yet 5G NR (New Radio) air-interface technology will provide higher levels of scalability and flexibility that will enable much broader functionality for industrial segments (not to mention the public) to utilize.

5G wireless technology will provide improved speed, reduced latency, and the ability to connect more devices at once. Additionally, 5G will bring a new level of wireless service that merges all the basic functions of previous wireless generations and delivers new networking technology offering the type of wireless coverage and new use cases that will stir the imagination.