Development of a Model to Evaluate the Potential of 5G Technology for Latency-critical Applications in Production

Latency-critical applications in production promise to be essential enablers for performance improvement in production. However, they require the right and often wireless communication system. 5G technology appears to be an effective way to achieve communication system for these applications. Its estimated economic benefit on production gross domestic product is immense ($740 billion Euro until 2030). However, 55% of production companies state that 5G technology deployment is currently not a subject matter for them and mainly state the lack of knowledge on benefits as a reason. Currently, it is missing an approach or model for a use case specific, data-based evaluation of 5G technology influence on the performance of production applications. Therefore, this paper presents a model to evaluate the potential of 5G technology for latency-critical applications in production. First, we derive requirements for the model to fulfill the decision-makers' needs. Second, we analyze existing evaluation approaches regarding their fulfillment of the derived requirements. Third, based on outlined research gaps, we develop a model fulfilling the requirements. Fourth, we give an outlook for further research needs.