“5G will herald Industry 4.0 era”

The new generation of mobile technology will help the sector acquire data, as also to react to it accordingly, with the help of AI and ML

By Hemant Kashyap

Delivering the industry keynote at the Voice&Data 5G Conference Dell Technologies Director and CTO (Telecom) Saurabh Tewari said that 5G will herald the fourth industrial revolution. “Industry 4.0 will transform every vertical,” he said highlighting the transformative power of the 5th generation mobile network.

Talking about the changes that 5G NR can potentially bring, Tewari first mentioned the general statistics related to the performance of the network; the throughput, the handover rate, the latency, and so on. He showed that in every aspect, 5G truly becomes a generational shift. For instance, the throughput increases by a factor of 10 from 4G to 5G. At the same time, latency decreases by a factor of 10 as well.

Application of the reduced latency can enable factories locate faulty parts and remove them from the production line to avoid defective products.

Sharing insight about data across the edge of networks, Tewari said that according to a 2018 study, the data sphere, driven by 5G, IoT, Edge, and artificial intelligence (AI) will reach 175 zettabytes by 2025 annually. He also pointed out that this could increase to 200-250 ZB given the pandemic-fueled increase in data consumption. Out of the 175 ZB, 90 ZB will come from IoT devices, all of which will be real-time consumption.

“5G with Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) will deliver transformation across all industry verticals,” he stated.

Driving revolution in manufacturing

Tewari pointed to manufacturing as a key industry vertical for 5G and IoT. “5G is going to play a major role in manufacturing,” he said, adding that it will help the sector not only acquire data but also to react to it accordingly, with the help of AI and ML. He illustrated the application of the reduced latency; it can enable factories to locate faulty parts and remove them from the production line to avoid defective products.

He introduced predictive maintenance, adding reliability to the manufacturing process. With lower latencies, the industry can coordinate manufacturing “to a degree that has never been possible in the past.” This potentially will reduce the time it takes for a product to reach from the production line to the customer. Also, it can dampen the effects of any shocks the supply chain faces; in the post-COVID world, the industry has to be prepared.

Tewari then introduced Dell’s telecom products that were recently introduced in India – PowerEdge XR11 and XR12, the edge computing servers. He said that these servers had a wide horizon of use, are rugged, and “do not compromise on the standard and security.”

Lower latency will reduce the time it takes for a product to reach from the production line to the customer.

“Dell is working with all industry verticals to create products which will essentially work in close coordination with 5G networks, and create solutions that will pretty much transform any industry vertical,” Tewari concluded.

hemantka@cybermedia.co.in