Test company Keysight Technologies has joined the 5G Alliance for Connected Industries and Automation (5G-ACIA) to establish a test framework for industrial 5G networks and applications, and to assure certification of related industrial IoT components
The 5G-ACIA now has more than 50 members from across technology and industrial fields, with a strong showing from European and Japanese firms, notably. Members include the likes of ABB, Audi, Bosch, China Mobile, Ericsson, Huawei, Infineon, Intel, Mitsubishi, Nokia, NXP, Orange, Panasonic, Qualcomm, Siemens, Deutshe Telekom, Vodafone, and ZTE.
Keysight rival Rohde & Schwarz is also a member, tasked with the same job to establish a test framework for new industrial 5G networks, whether they use private, shared, or public spectrum holdings. Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo, which has just announced it is working on industrial 5G trials in Japan with Nokia and Omron, joined the 5G-ACIA last week, as momentum builds around the industrial sector as the primary 5G conduit for technological revolution.
Keysight said its portfolio of network, device, and application test solutions will support the 5G-ACIA’s mission to accelerate the development of interworking technologies, a key component in enabling industrial IoT using 5G. It said 5G will improve the “flexibility, versatility, usability, and efficiency” of factories in the future.
Giampaolo Tardioli, vice president of Keysight’s network access group, commented: “We are pleased to join 5G-ACIA, an alliance focused on ensuring that 5G technologies meet and address industrial use cases and requirements across automation, engineering and process industries.”
Andreas Müller, chairman at the 5G-ACIA, from German firm Bosch, commented: “We have seen an increased interest in 5G for industrial IoT over the past year. The first version of the standard is available, and the first 5G consumer products are arriving on the market – 5G is a reality.
“However, there is still work to be done to unlock the huge potential that 5G offers for the manufacturing industry. 5G-ACIA has been established to fill in the remaining gaps in this respect, and to bring relevant stakeholders in the emerging industrial 5G ecosystem together. We are very happy to welcome Keysight Technologies as a new member. Their deep expertise in test and measurement will help ensure that industrial 5G is a major success.”
Nokia has said that manufacturing – out of all industries, and way ahead of the consumer market – will benefit most from 5G technology. John Harrington, president and chief executive at Nokia in Japan, said: “Whilst consumers will experience faster, more immediate mobile communications, it is manufacturers that are set to benefit the most from 5G.”
