Three LTE ‘campus’ networks – DT debuts public-private LTE in Austria, Czech, Hungary

Deutsche Telekom has public-private ‘campus’ networking setups with various customers, offering a kind of proto-slicing, as a precursor to industrial 5G. It has so far announced deals with German lighting company OSRAM, German car parts maker ZF Group, and the RWTH research institute at Aachen University.

LTE-based ‘campus’ networks, delivered by operators and configured correctly, can serve most industrial use cases, whilkst offering a pathway to new 5G use cases, as well, it reckons. Deutsche Telekom has also trialled slicing-proper via Nokia 5G kit in the Port of Hamburg, for environmental monitoring, traffic control, and maintenance support.

The Hamburg experiment has showed operators of public networks can serve the industrial space with 5G slices and LTE proto-slices hived-off of their everyday network setups, it reckons.

Deutsche Telekom is working with Ericsson to jointly serve industrial enterprise customers with these campus networks. Their approach is to capture and service the emerging Industry 4.0 market sector, starting with LTE-based services with the aim of developing future-tailored services based on 5G technology.

It has just revealed a number of new private LTE setups, for live LTE scenarios and future 5G propositions, set out below in its own words.

Antje Williams, senior vice president of 5G campus networks of 5G campus networks at Deutsche Telekom, commented: “Our aim is to help our enterprise customers wherever they are to take advantage of Industry 4.0 technologies based on our tailored campus network solutions. Together with our national companies we look forward to the collaboration with local universities and partners on the research and co-creation of solutions for industry digitalization.”

BorgWarner – Oroszlány, Hungary

“Magyar Telekom and T-Systems Hungary have provided a campus network for automotive component supplier BorgWarner, at its site in Oroszlány in Hungary. This solution is being tested under real-world manufacturing conditions for the first time in Hungary and in the central European region. The first areas of application are intra-logistics (barcode-reading, automated material handling), manufacturing control (PLC data connection), and production monitoring. The campus network is based on LTE but can be upgraded to 5G in the future.”

Technical University of Ostrava – Ostrava, Czech Republic 

“T-Mobile and the Technical University of Ostrava will sign a memorandum for the rollout of the first campus network in the Czech Republic. The network will cover a part of the university campus, and be part of a testbed platform for digitized production and Industry 4.0.

“The university is currently completing the construction of a building that is part of a testbed housing a smart factory, including digital workplace with robotics components, autonomous transportation, and utilization of Industry 4.0 elements. An integral part of the infrastructure complex will be a private campus network to be deployed by T-Mobile. It is scheduled to be operational in the second quarter of 2020.”

Graz University of Technology – Graz, Austria

“Magenta Telekom and Graz University of Technology will open Austria’s first 5G campus network for scientific and industrial purposes in the first half of 2020. The ‘smartfactory@tugraz’ research and learning factory will be equipped with 5G technology from Magenta Telekom. This connects machines and planning processes digitally and in real time.

“Together with 19 partners, an industrial 5G learning and research environment for the digital integration of state-of-the-art production facilities is being created at Graz University of Technology on an area of 320 square metres. For this purpose, a complete industrial production chain will be set up. 

“This includes a production line with robot arms, metal 3D printing, robotics for different applications, edge computing, RFID applications, as well as IoT and M2M applications. In cooperation with Magenta Telekom, this research landscape is now also becoming a research environment for 5G applications with a research focus on remote services in industrial manufacturing.”