Deutsche Telekom, Bosch and several German companies are taking part in a project with the aim of offering campus networks across Germany.
The “CampusOS” project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK) with 18,1 million euros ($20.8 million) over the next three years.
The Fraunhofer Institutes HHI and FOKUS are coordinating the project. The goal of the project is to build a modular ecosystem for open 5G campus networks based on open radio technologies and interoperable network components. This aims to create vendor independence and enable more competition and innovation to empower the digital sovereignty of companies in Germany. With that in mind, 22 partners from industry and research are testing different operating models, developing reference architectures, and evaluating the interoperability and performance of integrated solutions in reference test areas. Also, they are testing selected scenarios as prototypes in an industrial environment.
The partners in the CampusOS project aim to create a digital ecosystem that guarantees open radio technologies and interoperable network components. The ecosystem will be realized in the form of a technology toolbox, which will be expanded to include a component catalog and proposals for different operating models. Using network virtualization supplemented by artificial intelligence and machine learning, end devices and functionalities of the radio access network (RAN) and core network (CORE) can thus be combined dynamically and individually tailored to form a modular and secure 5G campus network.
In order to test the new ecosystem, the Fraunhofer Institutes FOKUS and HHI will set up reference testbeds at their facilities in Berlin. These testbeds are intended to test individual elements and various combinations of the technology toolkit for performance and interoperability before trialing them in application-specific industrial scenarios.
“In this project, we are developing highly flexible and open solutions for industry-specific campus networks,” said Slawomir Stanczak, head of the wireless communications and networks department at Fraunhofer HHI. “In addition to flexibility and adaptability, improved scalability, simplified management, and reduced costs are important factors. This open approach provides the basis and thus the opportunity for more competition and more innovation in the field of campus networks.”
Thomas Magedanz, head of the software-based network business unit at Fraunhofer FOKUS, added: “We consider open campus networks as key drivers for future 5G and also 6G innovations, sometimes for highly specialized enterprise applications. We believe that CampusOS – particularly due to the broad participation of the relevant industry players – offers the opportunity to further expand Germany’s international leadership role in this context.”
The researchers are evaluating the following scenarios in regular operation at the industrial partners’ sites:
-Connected mobility: Tele-operated driving in confined areas and network-supported functional safety at Bosch in Hildesheim.
-Industry 4.0: Low-latency and resilient control of vehicles and transmission of videos at very high data rates at STILL in Hamburg.
-Construction: Real-time monitoring of construction sites and interconnection of all sensors and construction equipment deployed on construction sites at Topcon.
The partners participating in this initiative are atesio, brown-iposs, BISDN, Bosch, Deutsche Telekom, EANTC AG, Fraunhofer Institutes FOKUS and HHI, GPS Gesellschaft für Produktionssysteme, highstreet technologies, Kubermatic, MUGLER SE, Node-H, Rohde & Schwarz, rt-solutions.de GmbH, Siemens AG, Smart Mobile Labs AG, STILL, SysEleven, Topcon Deutschland Positioning, Technische Universität Berlin and Technische Universität Kaiserslautern.
Last month, Deutsche Telekom said it has extended its campus network portfolio with the new offering of location-specific 5G mobile networks for companies based on 5G Standalone Technology (5G SA).
The telco said that the new campus network offering is based on a local 5G infrastructure that is exclusively available for the customer’s digital applications.
Deutsche Telekom also said that the new offering is powered by the Ericsson Private 5G portfolio.
The 5G SA Campus network operates completely separated from the public mobile network and all components of the infrastructure from the antennas to the standalone core network to the network server are located on the customer’s premises, ensuring that sensitive data remains exclusively within the local campus network.
