Feasibility and Performance Case Study of a Private Mobile Cell in the Smart Factory Context

Industrial applications in the era of Industry 4.0 require more flexibility for the integration of new sensors and actuators and also demand high mobility for which wired communication is unsuitable. For the integration of wireless communication systems in an industrial application, guaranteed high Quality of Services (QoSs) is a premise that is not fully covered by wireless systems such as WiFi, Bluetooth, ZigBee or LTE. For the latter, the evolution to 5G systems as private or public networks is a currently ongoing process. This paper examines the legal and technical requirements to operate a private mobile cell in a smart factory and presents measurements on latency and bandwidth performance of current state of the art hardware as well as the integration in an industrial Layer 2 communication system. The system in use is ready for only low demanding industrial real-time applications but, nevertheless, the advantages of a licensed frequency range for private use become visible. Furthermore, some concepts defined by the 3GPP, e.g. mini-slots and grant free transmission, are pointed out that are expected to enhance the QoS guarantees for industrial traffic.