Industrial IoT and manufacturing will become one of the largest 5G markets

Private 5G networks are attractive to the largest manufacturers in the factory and industrial automation sectors, where they can control security and architecture. To gain legitimate share, mobile operators need to focus on the “mobile” use cases in the Industrial Internet of Things, design service packages with security and performance guarantees, and collaborate with partners.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is often associated with exciting consumer innovations such as smart homes, connected cars, smart retail or wearable devices. But with the improvements brought by 5G mobile connectivity, the entire industry will experience huge disruption. ABI Research expects that by 2030, digital factory revenue will increase from the current $59 billion to $375 billion. In the next decade, networked service revenues for machine tools, asset tracking and networked programmable logic controllers will grow the most.

The Industrial Internet of Things, also known as IIoT, is a major pillar of Industry 4.0, the fourth industrial revolution where factories are increasingly automated thanks to full connectivity and the ability to easily connect to anything from anywhere. Offering high capacity, wireless flexibility, and low-latency performance, 5G is the natural choice to support the future of industrial digitalization.

In addition to “cutting the cables”, what else can 5G bring to industry?

The Industrial Internet of Things covers a variety of use cases with different requirements, but generally speaking, it is a combination of Massive Internet of Things, Critical Internet of Things, and Broadband Internet of Things. In manufacturing, 5G can be used to track and process data from sensors that monitor each product at any stage of the production or delivery process (Massive Internet of Things). Industrial robots can benefit from ultra-reliable low latency and high availability (Critical Internet of Things). The high capacity provided by 5G (Broadband Internet of Things) provides security cameras or augmented reality devices to employees.

Other examples of Industrial IoT can be found in mining, agriculture and container ports, where asset tracking, reliable robotic control and automated monitoring are only possible using 5G.

5G offers high capacity, wireless ubiquity and flexibility, and low latency performance. It is a natural choice to “cut the cable”, making it easier to adapt to the physical location of operations, avoid unreliable WiFi, and move away from the many different IoT connectivity standards used today, such as LoRa. 5G also offers increased reliability and the ability to provide network slices with specific availability and latency guarantees for different types of use cases. These network slices can be dynamically created or modified as needed.

There is a huge opportunity for mobile operators if they focus on the right use cases and partnerships

The Industrial Internet of Things is a huge opportunity for network operators as the market potential is huge and diverse. A recent 5G Business: A Market Compass to 2030 report found that 47% of the total 5G-enabled ICT market (up to $700 billion) will be served by network operators by 2030.

But for operators, staying relevant could also be a challenge, as 5G offers the possibility for enterprises to create their own private networks using unlicensed spectrum. German electronics manufacturer Bosch recently applied for a private 5G license, saying 5G private campus LANs are the way forward, with control over security and architecture.

In addition, 5G opens the market to numerous industry players who will compete or cooperate with operators to provide 5G solutions to enterprise customers. In order to cooperate or compete with these new players, operators will need to change their current mindset and improve channel landing and billing systems to support different types of partners and implement different service levels for 5G applications.

Mobile operators will have the opportunity to monetize different services based on the quality of service (QoS) required for each type of 5G service or application. This will be extremely important for business-critical industrial IoT. The ultra-low latency and high availability required for industrial robots require a more stringent service level agreement (SLA) than just basic connectivity for a set of sensors.

To ensure business productivity, performance visibility and control over different network slices for each industrial application and factory is required

What are the challenges in meeting 5G IIoT performance requirements?

It is important that mobile network operators are able to measure and manage the different 5G service performance requirements through stricter quality controls and be able to prove that all services meet the required service guarantees. Operators need to take more responsibility to ensure that latency, reliability and connectivity are continuously provided 24/7 to prevent any performance degradation.

But collecting performance data is not just an end in itself. This data needs to be processed and digested so that any anomalies or degradations can be detected and fixed before they impact service quality. This becomes even more important in the 5G era, as the volume and complexity of the data requires a highly automated processing process.

Industry 4.0 is creating millions of new endpoints that need to be connected. However, existing performance management systems cannot support this, which provides opportunities for new experts and suppliers.

Accedian’s Skylight provides the flexibility to measure the performance of the underlying physical network infrastructure and extend this to each different 5G network slice. Performance measurements can be automated and orchestrated to fit the specific requirements of industrial application needs. Skylight also provides visibility across different vendors and technologies through a single pane of glass. We call this “Skylight Performance Analytics” – it provides a way to visualize service availability and performance in real time, as well as the insights needed to take action when necessary. Skylight analytics also facilitate reporting on SLAs associated with different service levels offered by operators. ​