German carrier Deutsche Telekom, Nokia and the Hamburg Port Authority have tested new features of 5G technology in a test bed installed at the Port of Hamburg.
From January 2018 to June 2019, the approximately 8,000-hectare site served as a test bed to trial 5G applications for industrial segments.
Three use cases with different network requirements were tested during the trial phase: In the firt use case, the partners installed sensors on three ships from the HPA subsidiary Flotte Hamburg GmbH & Co. KG. These sensors enable the real-time monitoring and analysis of motion and environmental data from large parts of the port area.
In the second use case, the Port Road Management Center of the HPA remotely controls the traffic flows in the port of Hamburg via a traffic light connected to the mobile network. This should help, for example, to guide trucks faster and safer through the port area, the partners said.
The third example tests high bandwidth availability: With the help of 5G technology, 3D information is transmitted to an augmented reality application. The 3D glasses allow maintenance teams on site to call up additional information such as building data or receive remote interactive support from an expert.
Through these three use cases the project partners were able to demonstrate that complex industrial applications with diverging requirements can reliably work over a common physical infrastructure.
“We have gained valuable experience, which we have also shared with the port industry and other partners at several events. That was very important to us right from the start,” said HPA project manager Hendrik Roreger. “Thanks to the experience gained, we now have a clear technological advantage in the Port of Hamburg. When 5G officially starts, we would be ready to implement even complex applications here.” Future 5G coverage in the port would be provided by the mobile network operators.
“The field test is extremely valuable for us to gain practical experience with 5G,” said Antje Williams, Senior Vice President 5G Campus Networks at Deutsche Telekom. “The research project has shown that with 5G, we can best adapt our network to the customer’s requirements. 5G is the intelligent network of the future. Industry and the logistics sector in particular will benefit from 5G as a strong lever for a variety of applications”.
Christoph Schmelz, Nokia research project manager and coordinator of 5G-MoNArch said: “The project in the Port of Hamburg serves as a blueprint for the industrial use of 5G technology. We were able to show in a real-world environment that mobile networks can be quickly and flexibly adapted to the needs of industrial users thanks to network slicing. 5G will become critical infrastructure and change industries as we know them, and Nokia’s expertise in dedicated networks can bring real 5G and growth opportunities for Industry 4.0.”
The 5G test in the Port of Hamburg is part of the two-year research project “5G-MoNArch”. The goal of 5G-MoNArch is to implement concepts for 5G mobile communications architecture in practice. While the test field in Hamburg focuses on the integration of 5G into traffic and infrastructure control, a second test field of the project in Turin deals with multimedia applications. The European Union’s Horizon 2020 research framework program is funding 5G-MoNArch as a Phase II project of the 5G Infrastructure Public Private Partnership.
