A smart campus network in Swabia
07.10.2020
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Industry 4.0 in Swabia, where thanks to high bandwidths and low latencies OSRAM is running autonomous transport robots and testing augmented reality applications in Schwabmünchen.
Finding out right away from a tablet which cable is damaged, transporting spare parts by autonomous robots or relying on virtual reality for cross-location support for repairing machines. These are not scenarios from the future; they are reality here and now – on enterprise campuses with high-performance campus networks.
Lighting products manufacturer OSRAM already uses autonomous robots in its Schwabmünchen production facility near Augsburg to transport rolls of heavy special wire between workstations. It is also testing scenarios such as augmented reality for remote support. Deutsche Telekom is in charge of planning and setting up the network.
WHAT IS A CAMPUS NETWORK?
High-performance campus networks are speeding up the digitization of industry. A dual-slice network combines a private and a public mobile network. The infrastructure is set up on the customer’s premises, be they a factory, a university or an enterprise campus. The private mobile network is not accessible from outside and is available solely to the company and its employees. External service providers can use the public network on the premises and remote maintenance also runs on the public network.
Data is processed at a local data center. In contrast to a WLAN solution the powerful mobile network guarantees low latency and high coverage. As the campus network is self-contained, data transmission is always via a secure connection and data security is especially high, which is an important aspect when digitizing production facilities.
The speed and flexibility of our equipment and machines are extremely important for efficient production processes. The integrated campus solution project provides us with the opportunity to test how we can use new technologies to further expand and optimize this in the future.
Hans-Joachim Schwabe, CEO OSRAM Automotive
“The speed and flexibility of our equipment and machines are extremely important for efficient production processes. The integrated campus solution project provides us with the opportunity to test how we can use new technologies to further expand and optimize this in the future.”
Hans-Joachim Schwabe, CEO OSRAM Automotive
CONNECTING MACHINES DIGITALLY IN REAL TIME
OSRAM already benefits from the advantages. A local data center processes the data in real time, which is a speed advantage compared with processing in the cloud. To ensure high performance Telekom has installed an LTE antenna at the Schwabmünchen production facility. OSRAM’s campus network currently runs on 4G. In the future 5G will facilitate trouble-free real-time communication between robots, machines and transport vehicles.
“Our aim is to implement the Smart Factory where all machines and planning processes are connected with each other digitally and in real time,” says Stefan Fritz, Vice President Digital Factory at OSRAM. “With the campus solution we have set up at our Schwabmünchen works an infrastructure that enables us to achieve this objective efficiently and flexibly for existing and future production tasks. We are thereby able to further enlarge and improve the production facility by means of new technologies.” The OSRAM project is one of four campus networks that Telekom has implemented for customers in Europe. In the future Telekom will be assisting factories around the world with their transformation into smart factories.
“With our campus networks we are delivering a new solution for our industry customers. Based on LTE we can already realize many applications,” says Telekom’s Claudia Nemat, Director of Technology and Innovation. “In the future these networks will be even more powerful and flexible with 5G."
Lighting products manufacturer OSRAM is a leading global high tech enterprise. OSRAM manufactures products for virtual reality, autonomous driving, smartphones and connected lighting solutions. Headquartered in Munich, the company can look back on a corporate history of more than 113 years.
The aim of OSRAM and Telekom for this pilot project was to set up a digitally connected factory where automated processes make production more efficient.
Telekom installed at the OSRAM production facility in Schwabmünchen a dual slice campus network. On the basis of this technology Telekom developed an IT infrastructure with which OSRAM was able to transfer the control and navigation of mobile transport robots to a central EDGE cloud. The network currently runs on 4G technology. In the future it will be joined by 5G.
At the OSRAM works in Schwabmünchen the campus network makes production faster and more flexible. OSRAM also reports an increase in productivity. The new network is the basis for setting up more smart factories.
Daniel Kunz
Expert Digital Marketing
Digitization and the Internet of Things are among the favourite topics of Daniel Kunz. He has been with Deutsche Telekom since 2017 and regularly writes about technology trends and many exciting topics, especially for the retail trade and the logistics industry.
Daniel Kunz
Expert Digital Marketing
Digitization and the Internet of Things are among the favourite topics of Daniel Kunz. He has been with Deutsche Telekom since 2017 and regularly writes about technology trends and many exciting topics, especially for the retail trade and the logistics industry.
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