On November 22, 2023, inIT hosted the kick-off meeting of the research project "plug5G: Real-time capable 5G networks for industrial automation" at InnovationSPIN Lemgo.
The plug5G research project (https://www.init-owl.de/forschung/projekte/detail/echtzeitfaehige-5g-netzwerke-fuer-die-industrielle-automation/) is investigating the integrability of the emerging communication technologies 5G (the fifth generation of mobile communications) with Time Sensitive Networking (TSN). The focus is on the control and management level of the communication standards in order to determine, for example, how information is to be provided and processed in a 5G system so that the 5G system can be modeled and handled as a TSN network component.
In the hybrid meeting, the project participants intensively exchanged their interests, viewpoints and requirements regarding the use of 5G and TSN communication technologies. The focus was on topics such as priorities with regard to individual TSN functions, the influence of future 5G output statuses on the project priorities and the selection of suitable tools for the simulation and emulation of project results. The research partners also provided an outlook on the first project phase, which is expected to result in configuration and management models and their interfaces in an integrated 5G TSN system architecture.
The project was launched as part of joint industrial research together with the ZVEI research association in the field of electrical engineering. It also marks the start of a new research partnership between the Institute for Industrial Information Technology (inIT) at the Technische Hochschule Ostwestfalen-Lippe and the Institute for Reliable Embedded Systems and Communication Electronics (ivESK) at the Offenburg University of Applied Sciences.
"As both sides in the working groups of Prof. Axel Sikora and Prof. Jürgen Jasperneite have many years of expertise in the fields of Ethernet-based and wireless networking in the industrial environment, we can expect a particularly fruitful exchange in plug5G with correspondingly strong project results," says Arne Neumann, research group leader for computer networks at inIT. This is also reflected in the interest shown by industry, because with 11 companies, 6 of which are small and medium-sized, the project committee is pleasingly large and covers the value chain for industrial networking well with component manufacturers, system integrators, service providers and users.