GOVERNMENT-BACKED 5G-ENCODE ‘SLICES’ INDUSTRIAL 5G NETWORK IN WORLD FIRST
London, 6 September 2021: Today, 5G-ENCODE, a pioneering project that aims to make the benefits of 5G a reality for UK manufacturers, announces the switch on of the second phase of its industrial private 5G network. This follows the success of phase one of the network, which launched at the National Composites Centre (NCC) late last year.
5G-ENCODE aims to prove the commercial benefit of 5G technology to enable three specific industrial use cases: augmented reality and virtual reality to support design, manufacturing and training; monitoring and tracking time sensitive assets; and wireless real-time in-process monitoring and analytics.
The first phase of the industrial private network, using 4G, was used to establish a baseline for existing cellular technologies, against which results from the private 5G network can be benchmarked. The results of phase one will be revealed at a phase two launch event at the NCC in October 2021.
Key to the success of 5G-ENCODE’s use cases has been the deployment of network slicing and splicing technology developed by leading 5G-ENCODE consortium partner Zeetta Networks. Within any manufacturing environment there are multiple tools and machines all requiring different levels of connectivity with varying degrees of latency and throughput. Slicing and splicing technology enables operators to create multiple virtual networks that can be customised according to specific services and traffic levels needed. The network can therefore be optimised to meet the needs of different processes to improve efficiency, performance and business output.
The technology enables seamless delivery of applications across a number of separate private 5G, 4G or Wi-Fi domains that communicate via a public 5G or other transport networks. Through Zeetta Networks’ multi-domain orchestrator platform, engineers can automate the splicing and dicing of the network resources, to provide users and machines with the exact level of connectivity to optimise performance at any time. Any leftover capacity can be directed elsewhere, making the factory far more efficient and productive.
As part of the phase two network deployment, Zeetta and partners have created a new network slice by stitching together slices from one transport network and two separate private networks: one located at NCC HQ and the other at another facility at NCCI located several miles away from the first location.