Industry 4.0: Deutsche Telekom building 5G factory of the future

Production and logistics processes are increasingly being digitalized and automated. Industry 4.0 is the name given to this transformational trend in manufacturing industry.

Deutsche Telekom is now further expanding its contribution and expertise in the Industry 4.0 context through its membership of the Center Connected Industry (CCI) to co-create with partners on new solutions for the factory of the future.

The CCI comprises of scientific institutions and industrial companies of many sizes and branches. Membership is linked to the commitment of each partner to contribute resources to the community.

Connectivity, starting with LTE and evolving to 5G, will be a key enabler to support industrial use cases and customers’ needs. For this purpose, Deutsche Telekom will build a dual slice campus network combining public and private LTE at the RWTH Aachen site. The campus network will provide indoor coverage to the factory buildings, as well as outdoor coverage on the CCI site.

Research platform for the factory of the future and Industrial IoT

The collaboration in the CCI will focus on the identification and development of new solutions and applications with the potential to increase productivity in customers’ industrial environment. Based on the use case requirements and specifications of customers, solution prototypes will be jointly tested and implemented in the private campus environment until they are ready for production. For this, the production environment of the customer can be simulated, thus enabling the efficient transfer of new solutions into the customers operations.

5G technology is the basis for mobile industrial applications

“For a more flexible manufacturing capability in the smart factory of tomorrow, our industrial customers demand secure, reliable, high performance network solutions tailored to their specific needs,” says Alex Jinsung Choi, Senior Vice President Strategy & Technology Innovation, Deutsche Telekom. “We look forward to a close cooperation with our partners in the CCI to research and co-create solutions, based on Deutsche Telekom’s dual slice Campus Network technology, to enable digital and automated operations.”

"We are pleased to welcome Deutsche Telekom as a member of the Center Connected Industry. The appropriate use of modern communication networks such as LTE and especially 5G will be a major competitive advantage for the data-driven, connected economy in the future. Together, we will not only explore the potentials of mobile industrial applications, but also make them tangible and usable in real pilots, "says Christian Maasem, Director Center Connected Industry.