Cyber–physical systems are created at the intersection of physical processes, networking, and computation. For applications developed to implement cyber–physical interactions, in the face of limited resources, an optimization of efficiency needs to be handled across all entities—communication, computing, and control. This gives rise to the emerging area of “co-design” that addresses the challenge of designing applications or systems at the intersection of control, communication, and compute when these domains can and should no longer be considered to be fully independent. In this article a co-design framework is presented that provides a structured way of addressing the co-design problem. Different co-design degrees are specified that group application design approaches according to their needs on criticality/dependability and relate these to the knowledge, insights, and required interactions with the communication and computation infrastructure. The applicability of the framework is illustrated for the example of autonomous mobile robots, showing how different co-design degrees exploit the relationships and permit the identification of technical solutions that achieve improved resource efficiency, increased robustness, and improved performance compared to traditional application design approaches. The framework is of relevance both for concrete near-term application implementation design as well as more futuristic concept development.

Wireless communication plays an important role in the digitization of industries. A 5G cellular communication system enables several industrial automation use cases. Fifth-generation deployments in industrial use cases have mainly been carried out in the sub-7 GHz frequency range. In this work, we empirically study 5G system performance in the millimeter wavelength (mmW) range for industrial use cases: additive manufacturing processes and precision manufacturing robotics. We carry out an experimental performance evaluation of a commercially available non-public 5G mmW system to assess its latency, reliability and throughput for uplink and downlink data traffic in a real industrial environment. We also investigate the impact of various 5G configurations on 5G performance characteristics with insights from the baseband log information as well as unidirectional latency measurements. Our empirical results indicate that 5G mmW system can achieve low latency with high reliability in both one-way traffic directions. The throughput is observed to be high for line-of-sight (LOS) scenarios, making the use of the 5G mmW system appealing especially for data rate-intensive and time-critical industrial use cases. We also observe that industrial environments with lots of metal and reflective surfaces provide favorable propagation conditions for non-LOS transmissions. Our results indicate that static industrial use cases with low mobility can leverage the performance benefits of 5G mmW systems.

The stringent requirements of industrial communication, especially high reliability and real-time response, are regarded as the main bottlenecks for the widespread adoption of wireless technologies in industrial applications. The integration of 5G and Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) protocols offers convergence of both wireless and various wired communication technologies for industrial applications. In this article, we describe our 5G and TSN integrated prototype, which achieves high reliability based on the IEEE 802.1CB Frame Replication and Elimination for Reliability (FRER) scheme. Different 5G systems have been used in various combinations to empirically study the benefits of FRER for 5G communication in real industrial environments. We evaluate the performance of our prototype and validate it for an industrial use case on Smart Sensors for Milling Processes, requiring a latency below 10 ms for 99.99% of the packets sent, which has been achieved in the measurements using FRER. This use case and the high requirements towards latency and reliability demonstrate the benefits of 5G integration with FRER for industrial production.

Digitalization of industries is essential for achieving the ever-increasing demands for flexible and customized production. Wireless communication plays a key role in enabling digitalization of industries. Cellular communication systems are expected to efficiently support data traffic with varying sets of requirements on latency, reliability and throughput as well as mobility and scalability in industrial applications. In this paper, we describe a framework that enables closed-loop runtime adaptation of a cellular network configuration using artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) methods based on the observed network performance characteristics and dynamic changes in application service level requirements. While most of the existing works on the use of AI/ML methods for 5G performance enhancement are based on computer simulations, our framework has been experimentally evaluated on an industrial 5G non-public network in an industrial environment. We present over-the-air empirical performance results of a 5G non-public network deployment in the local industrial spectrum in Germany. Our empirical results give insights into 5G deployments in industrial environments and highlight that the desired communication robustness for a mobile robotics use case can be achieved with efficient use of radio resources using deep reinforcement learning.

As industries become more digitized, they are entering a new era of connectivity based on 5G and beyond technology features. This transformation brings new challenges such as interference between public and non-public networks. In this study, we investigate the automatic configuration of non-public networks using a Machine Learning-based What-if Analysis technique to mitigate interference and enhance 5G NR networks coexistence. This proactive decision-making solution is designed for various coexistence scenarios, namely adjacent and co-channel. It provides a systematic approach for selecting the most suitable network parameters and configurations. We validate our approach through experimental analysis, with a particular focus on selecting and analyzing the TDD pattern and link robustness for 5G NR non-public network deployments. Our analysis is based on real-world experiments carried out at the 5G Industry Campus Europe in Aachen, Germany.

5G is envisioned as a key wireless technology to enable smart manufacturing. 5G allows new manufacturing use cases and provides a high degree of communication flexibility for monitoring processes and controlling machines. Several manufacturing applications involve high power arc welding. In this work, we systematically evaluate the performance of a 5G cellular communication system in the presence of the widely used metal active gas (MAG) type of arc welding process. We carry out our experimental evaluation in a production facility with a robotic arm-controlled spot and line welding processes. Our empirical results indicate that the electromagnetic disturbance from MAG welding does not cause any performance degradation for the 5G system.

The 5G non-public network deployments for industrial applications are becoming highly interesting for industries and enterprises owing to dependable wireless performance characteristics. With an increasing trend of network deployments in local licensed and/or shared spectrum, coexistence issues naturally arise. In this article, we present our detailed empirical results on the performance impact of a 5G NR indoor non-public network from a 5G NR outdoor network operating in the same mid-band spectrum. We present experimental results on the uplink and downlink performance impact of a non-public indoor network deployed on an industrial shopfloor. Our results quantify the impact on the uplink and downlink performance characteristics based on realistic traffic loads in a non-public indoor network when using synchronized and unsynchronized Time Division Duplex (TDD) patterns, different UE deployment locations and interference levels. We also present results on mitigating interference effects through robust link adaptation techniques. We believe that this is the first article, which reports quantified 5G NR cochannel coexistence results based on a detailed and systematic study, and provides signficant insights on the cochannel coexistence behavior in realistic deployment scenarios of an industrial shopfloor.

Converged networks require new service protection functionalities to ensure reliable and robust communications. This paper provides insights into the evolution of deterministic communication and the importance of service protection in converged networks. We examine the per-packet-based replication/elimination service protection mechanism, ongoing standardization efforts, and potential areas for further development. We also explore the practical implementation of the service protection technique in real network scenarios, including its impact on operation and maintenance. The main contributions of the paper are: (1) new cloud-specific extensions to the service protection functionality, (2) introduction of redundancy domains to avoid replication/elimination-related failure propagation, (3) new service protection specific extensions to the network operation toolset, and (4) new diagnostic capabilities to monitor the healthiness of the service protection functionalities. Additionally, we evaluate the effectiveness and operation of newly proposed service protection extensions based on experimental results from a real 5G testbed.

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has introduced technical features for Non-Public Networks (NPN), allowing highly flexible and dedicated 5G deployments for Industry 4.0 applications. This paper presents insights into the early adoption of a 5G Public Network Integration Non-Public Network (PNI-NPN) for industrial automation applications with observed network performance. Our contributions are threefold: (i) we present network design concepts to overcome the challenges of industrial use-cases and mobile network limitations, (ii) we propose network architecture over 5G Non-Standalone architecture (NSA), and (iii) we perform validation measurements with PROFINET and PROFIsafe communication. Our results – at a real industrial 5G setting – indicate that the proposed architecture is very promising for future 5G industrial deployments.

Wireless- and 5G-enabled industrial automation is expected to include a plethora of different applications with a wide variety of requirements. In this article, evaluations are undertaken for the deployment of 5G in realistic industrial production environments with realistic deployment settings. Both deployments using commercial 5G systems and a 5G prototype system including pre-commercial and standard compliant URLLC functionality have been investigated. Systematic latency and reliability measurements were performed, over the air and in live networks, for different packet sizes, different devices, and networks with different capabilities (at different sites) to characterize the expected performance. The results indicate that today’s 5G latency performance significantly depends on packet size, transmission direction (uplink or downlink), and network configuration as well as on the end device’s design and capabilities. Our over-the-air measurements also empirically show that 5G technology and future networks have the capability of providing one-way latency of around 1 ms in both uplink and downlink for the various packet sizes tested. It is concluded that the requirements for very low latencies can be achieved with high reliability guarantees, as required in some of the most stringent industrial IoT applications.

The digitization of industries enables a rapid transformation from mass production to individualized manufacturing. Communication plays an essential role in this digital transformation; in particular, wireless communication enables a high degree of flexibility, dynamic interactions, and mobility support in production systems. This paper presents an implementation of a 5G system with Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) and analyzes a typical industrial use case involving cloud-controlled mobile robots. A prototype setup integrating 5G in a TSN network has been completed to evaluate the 5G-TSN performance for industrial applications. The integrated 5G and TSN prototype has been evaluated with over the air tests in an industrial shopfloor using TSN features of traffic shaping and scheduling.

Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) and mobile manipulators are becoming increasingly popular in industrial use cases, especially for flexible lineless assembly systems. These use cases require wireless communication with high reliability and jitter-minimized bounded latency. This paper describes an industrial use case, where edge-controlled AMRs collaboratively perform various screw installation tasks on a truck chassis. We integrate Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) features such as time synchronization and IEEE 802.1CB based Frame Replication and Elimination for Reliability (FRER) scheme with 5G wireless communication to realize this use case. Moreover, we apply hold and forward buffer (HFB) mechanism to minimize communication jitters. This paper highlights the performance benefits of the aforementioned TSN features for 5G communication in the edge-controlled AMR use case. Our empirical evaluation with over-the-air performance results obtained on an industrial shopfloor brings significant insights on using 5G for edge-controlled robotic use cases.

This deliverable results from the work on the radio network performance analysis of the identified use cases and deployment options. Covered topics include latency reduction and mobility features of the 5G NR itself, as well as detailed analysis of the radio network KPIs, such as latency, reliability, throughput, spectral efficiency and capacity. Corresponding trade-offs for the identified deployment options and industrial use cases are quantified with an extensive set of technical results. Also, this deliverable is looking into co-channel coexistence performance analyzed through a real-life measurement campaign and considers performance optimization in presence of a special micro-exclusion zone within a factory.

Methods and apparatus in a fifth-generation wireless communications, including an example method, in a wireless device, that includes receiving a downlink signal comprising an uplink access configuration index, using the uplink access configuration index to identify an uplink access configuration from among a predetermined plurality of uplink access configurations, and transmitting to the wireless communications network according to the identified uplink access configuration. The example method further includes, in the same wireless device, receiving, in a first subframe, a first Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) transmission formatted according to a first numerology and receiving, in a second subframe, a second OFDM transmission formatted according to a second numerology, the second numerology differing from the first numerology. Variants of this method, corresponding apparatuses, and corresponding network-side methods and apparatuses are also disclosed.

At the core of digital transformation of the manufacturing industry is the objective to unlock data at multiple points of the production system and produce insights to improve and optimize all aspects of the business operations. Tremendous advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning make it possible to analyze a vast volume of the field and production data and translate them into optimization decisions. Real-time access to the data complements efficient machine learning inference for timely and actionable insights. Flexible and re-configurable manufacturing also demands high-performance, pervasive, and low-la-tency communication links supporting mobility of workers, devices, and robots. Fifth Generation (5G) New Radio (NR) introduced basic support for Ultra Reliable and Low Latency Communication (urLLC) in Release-15 through intrinsic design features. Release-16 extends real-time capabilities of 5G NR to different verticals, addressing use cases in factory automation, the transport industry, and electrical power distribution. Wireless technologies such as 5G urLLC should co-exist with incumbent and emerging industrial Ethernet systems such as Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) in a heterogenous networking architecture. Hence, specification of interworking with TSN is also part of 3GPP Release-16. In this article, we discuss low-latency and high-reliability features supporting industrial automation, focusing on Release-16 design specifications. The interworking aspects with TSN and time synchronization accuracy limits are also highlighted, followed by performance evaluation of control and data traffic channels of 5G NR with respect to urLLC requirements.

Un metodo, en un dispositivo inalambrico, para operar en una red de comunicaciones inalambricas y operable para comunicarse con equipo de red de radio en la red de comunicaciones inalambricas, comprendiendo el metodo: recibir una primera senal de enlace descendente que comprende informacion que indica una pluralidad de configuraciones de acceso de enlace ascendente, incluyendo cada configuracion de acceso de enlace ascendente una configuracion de acceso aleatorio; recibir una segunda senal de enlace descendente que comprende un indice de configuracion de acceso de enlace ascendente, usando el indice de configuracion de acceso de enlace ascendente para identificar una configuracion de acceso de enlace ascendente entre la pluralidad indicada de configuraciones de acceso de enlace ascendente, y transmitir a la red de comunicaciones inalambricas una transmision de acceso aleatorio de acuerdo con la configuracion de acceso aleatorio incluida en la configuracion de acceso de enlace ascendente identificado; caracterizado porque el metodo comprende ademas: recibir, en respuesta, en una primera subtrama de enlace descendente, una primera transmision de multiplexacion por division de frecuencia ortogonal (OFDM) formateada de acuerdo con una primera numerologia y recibir, en una segunda subtrama de enlace descendente, una segunda transmision OFDM formateada de acuerdo con una segunda numerologia, la segunda numerologia difiere de la primera numerologia, en el que la primera numerologia tiene un primer espaciamiento de subportadora y la segunda numerologia tiene un segundo espaciamiento de subportadora, el primer espaciamiento de subportadora difiere del segundo espaciamiento de subportadora,

Purpose: To develop mortality risk stratification models of isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) using a structured prospective database in order to assess and improve the quality of cardiac surgical care.

Factory Automation (FA) applications typically require Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communication (URLLC). As existing wireless technologies operating in the unlicensed spectrum are unable to fulfil the stringent QoS requirements of FA applications, certainly this has become one of the key opportunities for 5G. In this paper, we introduce the concept of cooperation in Device-to-Device (D2D) communication for Long Term Evolution (LTE) and New Radio (NR). We have conducted comprehensive over-the-air evaluation of the proposed D2D cooperative scheme in a representative factory hall using a Software Defined Radio (SDR) testbed. Our empirical results indicate that the scheme is able to provide a high degree of reliability while satisfying the strict timeliness constraints as demanded by FA applications.

This demo showcases a typical industrial automation scenario of a robot picking and placing work pieces from a moving conveyor belt. It involves sensory data inputs to a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), and instructions from the PLC to a robot for the pick and place operation. The scenario requires communication from sensors to the PLC and from the PLC to a robot with ultra-low latency and extremely high reliability. While none of today’s wireless standards is capable of satisfying these stringent communication demands, our early prototype implementation of some of the design features of the future 5G standard enables industrial control using wireless communication. Our demo will show the live performance characteristics of the 5G design features for low latency and high reliability.

L'invention concerne des procedes realises par un dispositif sans fil, tel qu'un equipement utilisateur, fonctionnant dans un mode dormant, lesquels procedes consistent a realiser une mesure sur chaque ressource d'une pluralite de ressources provenant d'un ensemble predetermine de ressources ou a demoduler et a decoder des informations provenant de chaque ressource d'une pluralite de ressources provenant d'un ensemble predetermine de ressources, tel qu'un ensemble de faisceaux. Les procedes consistent en outre a evaluer la mesure ou les informations demodulees et decodees pour chaque ressource de la pluralite de ressources par rapport a un critere predetermine, puis a interrompre la realisation et l'evaluation de mesures, ou a interrompre la demodulation et le decodage et l'evaluation d'informations, en reponse a la determination du fait que le critere predetermine est satisfait, de telle sorte qu'une ou plusieurs ressources dans l'ensemble predetermine de ressources ne sont ni mesurees ni demodulees et decodees. Les procedes consistent en outre a desactiver une circuiterie de recepteur, toujours en reponse a la determination du fait que le critere predetermine est satisfait. Le procede consiste en outre a recevoir, dans une premiere sous-trame de liaison descendante, une premiere transmission de multiplexage par repartition orthogonale de la frequence formatee selon une premiere numerologie et a recevoir, dans une seconde sous-trame de liaison descendante, une seconde transmission OFDM formatee selon une seconde numerologie, la seconde numerologie etant differente de la premiere numerologie.