Last week, Deutsche Telekom put a campus network into operation on behalf of the BMW Group Leipzig plant. This is the fourth campus network at a customer's site that Deutsche Telekom has set up in Europe. Technology partner Ericsson is on board as network supplier.
Dual-slice solution for the car manufacturer
The Telekom campus network consists of a private mobile communications network that is exclusively available to the BMW Group's plant. In the future, various applications in production will be controlled and monitored via this network. In addition to the private campus network, the public network will transmit the same signal strength. This ensures a perfect connection even for terminal devices that are not allowed to transmit in the private network. For example, smartphones of customers or suppliers. This solution of private and public networks is called a dual-slice solution. The campus network at the BMW Group plant in Leipzig is initially based on the LTE standard.
Outlook for 5G Campus Networks
Together with Ericsson, Deutsche Telekom is already working on the further development of its campus networks. The development includes a 5G dual-slice solution that can also integrate the industry spectrum. On the other hand, Deutsche Telekom and Ericsson are working on an offer for private 5G networks without connection to the public network. This will allow more innovative applications to be implemented for industry. These private networks will do completely without LTE and will operate purely over 5G. The technology is called 5G Standalone.
The 5G architecture supports for example applications that require an ultra-short response time. In the 5G standard these applications are described as uRLLC applications. The abbreviation stands for "Ultra-Reliable and Low-Latency Communication". It describes extremely time-critical applications with the lowest latency time of e.g. only 1 millisecond. These are services that require the shortest response times and must not fail.
Ericsson and Telekom are currently working together to further develop the functionalities of campus solutions based on 5G standalone. Joint customer tests are already planned for this year.
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5G in industrial campus networks
5G is the foundation for campus networks and the automated production processes of Industry 4.0.