Nokia and Telia look to combine 5G with Industry 4.0

Nokia and Telia conducted a 5G trial at the end of March to test its usefulness in real-world applications of ‘Industry 4.0’, the industrial trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies.

Specifically, Nokia and Telia worked with Intel and Finnish software startup Finwe to provide a 5G radio access network operating in the 28 GHz frequency band for a “Conscious Factory” in Oulu, Finland.

The Nokia AirFrame data center solution, equipped with Intel Xeon Scalable processors, delivered network edge and core cloud flexibilities and capabilities.

Nokia said the use of Multi-access Edge Computing together with 5G allows data to be processed close to where it’s needed, dramatically reducing latency. The Finwe video application was used to monitor and analyze a video feed of a process on one assembly line. The application leveraged machine learning to immediately alert the assembly line operator of any inconsistencies in the process so they could be corrected in real-time, ensuring high-performance, reliability and quality.

In a second trial, the Nokia AirFrame data center solution, Nokia’s Multi-access Edge Computing platform and Finwe’s video analytics application were installed at Telia’s centralized data center in Helsinki, approximately 600 km from the Nokia Conscious Factory in Oulu.

Janne Koistinen, director of 5G Program at Telia Finland said: “Under our ‘5G Finland’ initiative we are working with companies such as Nokia to accelerate the fourth industrial revolution in the country. In this trial, we could show how we can extend our service offering to new industry customers to enable efficiencies that will advance their production capabilities.”

Marc Rouanne, president of Mobile Networks at Nokia, said: “Nokia’s 5G capabilities allow operators such as Telia to leverage machine learning and automation by opening up network data and intelligence. As we continue to deliver machine learning capabilities in Nokia’s ReefShark chipsets and develop advanced algorithms we will further enhance our radio performance, allowing customers to take advantage of new business opportunities in the 5G and IoT world.”