Autonomous technology on the road and underground
The improvements to network latency will give applications and devices the ability to communicate in close-to real-time. This should ease the safety concerns of autonomous vehicles, providing them the ability to constantly communicate with the ever-changing environment around them.
This of course will have significant impact on mining operations, something Sandvik is aware of. Already, Sandvik has signed an agreement with Nokia to further develop solutions based on private LTE and 5G technology, much of which will take place at the Sandvik test mine in Tampere, Finland.
“Our focus to date has been on private LTE technology, which offers speed, latency, reliability and privacy benefits over Wi-Fi. It’s one of the technologies our customers are asking for now,” explains Vilenius. The benefit to Sandvik in focusing on LTE is simple. (LTE stands for Long-term Evolution and isn’t as much a technology as it is the path followed to achieve 4G speeds). Jani Vilenius, Director of Research and Technology at SandvikCustomer demand is there, and the hardware can easily be upgraded to 5G when the time comes.
That’s because 5G will be used to augment and enhance existing LTE networks rather than replace them. Even so, telecommunications companies are facing a substantial investment. But rather than holding back the rollout, that very fact could speed things up.
Management consulting firm McKinsey & Company believes that the trend of network sharing will accelerate, decreasing what would otherwise be a daunting cost of 5G implementation. Network sharing enables operators to reduce the total cost of ownership while improving network quality by sharing both active and passive equipment. “Simulations from one case showed that by sharing 5G small-cell deployment and building a common, nationwide 5G IoT macro layer, operators could reduce 5G-related investments by more than 40 percent,” said a spokesperson.
Researching the business models of the future
In addition to the Sandvik test mine, Finland is also the home for significant research. Aalto University’s Industrial Internet Campus is a cross-disciplinary platform that provides a testbed for future solutions for industrial partners including Sandvik’s partner Nokia.
Project areas include intelligent construction sites, energy usage optimization in smart buildings, and the factory of the future. The 5G meets Industrial Internet (5G@II) project looks at how to provide a cost-effective, globally secure and secure foundation for a future 5G-driven industrial internet. Specifically, the team aims to create a blueprint of a 5G service management system by trialing it on real industrial use cases.
The Journey to 5G
2G: Enabled wireless telephone calls
3G: Enabled the mobile web
4G: Enabled video streaming and apps that require sustained connectivity
5G: The post-smartphone era of mobile connectivity
The backbone of the 5G standard is comprised of low-, mid- and high-band spectrum. There are two frequencies that 5G networks can operate on: sub-6 GHz and millimeter-wave (20-60 GHz).
Carriers were already using sub-6 spectrum for existing LTE networks, and now they need more of it to build out 5G. Millimeter-wave frequency was previously unused, and the advent of 5G has given carriers access to the spectrum that will enable the faster speeds we expect with the new standard.
Source: https://www.home.sandvik/en/stories/articles/2019/10/understanding-5g-the-backbone-of-the-industrial-internet/?gclid=CjwKCAjw4qCKBhAVEiwAkTYsPPp8dMUjt5kidggZ1996FO8CAsiMGomCsFIK1tniA5tb8UHYenS8xBoCmucQAvD_BwE
Photo Credit: TechCabal
