In order to realize industry 4.0 use cases such as mobile robots or automated guided vehicles, industrial network deployments must guarantee very high availability, reliability, and in many cases low latency communications. 5G NR technology including its latest enhancements specified in 3GPP Release 16 enables ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC), ideal for private campus network deployments. However, as with any wireless system, the communication link is subject to potential interference on the deployed spectrum bands.

The Industrial Radio Lab (IRL) Dresden is dedicated to researching and testing radio systems for industrial applications. In this effort, they cooperate with Rohde & Schwarz, a leading provider of 5G NR test solutions, which includes portable and easy to use test equipment for assessing a network’s performance in the field. Rohde & Schwarz has provided its high-performance network scanners to the IRL Dresden for distributed real-time radio spectrum and interference monitoring. With this application, the researchers gather important data on how to detect, locate and prevent interference and to keep a local spectrum band clear for reliable wireless connectivity.

IRL Dresden is one of the four regional labs of the Industrial Radio Lab Germany (IRLG) that engages in research and development of current and future wireless technologies in industry. The IRLG creates innovations, supports companies, and collaborates with stakeholders in economy and politics to ensure knowledge transfer towards a digital society. IRL Dresden has a particular focus on detection, localization, and mitigation of interference and improving network resilience through real-time measurements of time-variant channels and cooperative spectrum sensing.

Dr. Norman Franchi, project lead at IRL Dresden, says: “The capabilities to cope with predictable as well as unpredictable disturbances and to provide appropriate self-optimization and self-healing mechanisms are still insufficient. Automated and reliable methods based on real-time measurements and AI analysis to detect, localize and avoid unintentional self-interference as well as intentional interference like jamming are becoming increasingly important and challenging. This is especially true in dynamic industrial use cases and communications scenarios. The goal of the cooperation is to analyze and evaluate the requirements on the measurement sensors and network, and to derive which real-time performance can be achieved.”

Anne Stephan, Vice President Mobile Network Testing at Rohde & Schwarz, says: “Industrial campus network deployments, whether based on private spectrum or provided through network slices from a public operator, generally establish a demanding use case scenario. By partnering with a leading research institute like the IRL Dresden we not only support fundamental research, but gain first-hand insights that we can use to adapt our leading mobile network testing solutions for Industry 4.0”

For further information on test solutions from Rohde & Schwarz for smart factories, go to: https://www.rohde-schwarz.com/mnt/smart-factory

Mobile network testing in brief
Rohde & Schwarz is a leading global supplier of standalone products, integrated solutions and managed services for testing and improving the quality of mobile networks along the entire network lifecycle – from lab verification, spectral clearance, interference hunting and base station installation to site acceptance, benchmarking, optimization, troubleshooting and monitoring. The comprehensive portfolio supports all technologies, from 2G to 5G, and addresses all test and measurement scenarios from RF to end-user quality of experience (QoE). The innovative solutions allow users to accurately collect data and to gain machine learning-assisted deep insights into the QoE delivered to end users. Solutions from Rohde & Schwarz empower top-tier mobile network industry players to make QoE-centric business decisions with confidence, to deliver better services with higher quality for end users, to reduce time to market for new technologies and services and to secure and increase the value of their business.

About Industrial Radio Lab Germany (IRLG)
The IRLG engages in research and development of current and future wireless technologies and applications in industry. The lab creates and drives innovations, supports companies in research, and collaborates with actors in economy and politics to ensure knowledge transfer towards a digital society. It comprises four distributed research and pre-development labs that involve small and medium-sized enterprises through regional networking. The regional labs (IRLs) provide resources for joint research to collaborating partners. This allows companies the development of demonstrators based on wireless industrial communications. Additionally, each lab has its individual research focus. It should be noted that the IRLG operates independently and in the interest of the companies without pursuing own economic interests.