Deutsche Telekom has announced a partnership with Nokia and the Hamburg Port Authority to study the application of 5G technologies in an industrial setting.
The partners will use the Port of Hamburg’s expansive site, spanning 8,000 hectares, as a real-world test area to evaluate 5G capabilities such as network slicing and other advanced network functions.
During the trials, 5G will be applied to a range of practical use cases expected in port and industrial environments. Test scenarios include intelligent traffic-light management, virtual reality (VR) for monitoring and maintenance, and processing data from mobile sensors for industrial Internet of Things (IoT) deployments.
Claudia Nemat, Board Member for Technology and Innovation at Deutsche Telekom, said:
“This testbed in Hamburg is an important step on the road to 5G. We need hands-on experience that we can only gain in an operational environment like the Port of Hamburg. Our objective is to learn how best to adapt our network to meet real customer requirements.
The manufacturing and logistics sectors, in particular, will benefit from 5G as a powerful enabler for a wide range of applications.”
5G will need to demonstrate reliability and security for demanding tasks typical of port operations. The Hamburg Port Authority plans to evaluate whether 5G can collect and process environmental data in real time and whether VR-based monitoring of infrastructure such as watergates can enhance safety and operational oversight.
Jens Meier, CEO of the Hamburg Port Authority, said:
“5G delivers levels of security, reliability and speed that mobile networks have not offered before. HPA is opening up opportunities for entirely new use cases. By starting to gain experience with this cutting-edge technology now, we can help shape the standard.
This will benefit the entire City of Hamburg, not just the port.”
The initiative is part of the 5G MoNArch project (5G Mobile Network Architecture for diverse services, use cases, and applications in 5G and beyond) and will run over two years. Its aim is to move existing 5G concepts from the lab into operational solutions that can be deployed in industrial environments.
Peter Merz, Head of End-to-End Mobile Network Solutions at Nokia Bell Labs, commented:
“The 5G field trial in the Port of Hamburg opens the door to a new world of business applications and has the potential to transform multiple industries. This work is about making industrial processes faster and more flexible.
For the first time, these approaches will be tested under live conditions in Hamburg — the significance of this project cannot be overstated.”
While the Hamburg testbed will concentrate on industrial and logistics-focused uses of 5G, a second testbed in Turin, Italy, will emphasize multimedia and consumer-oriented applications.
What industrial 5G use cases do you think should be tested next? Share your ideas in the comments.