TACNET4.0: Tactile 5G Internet for Production, Robotics and Digitilization in Industry

The 5th generation equipment and infrastructure of mobile communication (5G) scheduled to be launched in the year 2020 will enable very high data rates and reliability even in industrial communication. As the so called “tactile internet” it will be capable of reaction times of less than a millisecond that are no longer perceptible for humans. 14 German companies and organizations have combined forces in the project TACNET 4.0 to tailor the tactile internet to the needs of the wide range of industrial applications in digitalized production and robotics.

The greatest challenge facing TACNET 4.0  is to integrate future 5G networks and other current as well as new industrial communications systems to a uniform network infrastructure in order to support a wide range of industrial applications, including the integration of field bus systems. The main focus is on the development of cross-network adaptation mechanisms and open interfaces between industrial and mobile communication systems.

TACNET 4.0 targets a 5G communication system with a requirement on minimum latency, which takes into account the requirement profiles and the complexity of as many future industrial 4.0 scenarios as possible as well as a high degree of agility and flexibility. For this purpose, new approaches such as big data analysis, edge-cloud-supported real-time control and remote operation are being investigated in the project.

Important aspects in the design process are an integrated overall network concept for user-controlled, cross-domain networking and the low latency cross-site data transmission as a basis for a wide range of applications.