Ericsson, Mugler, and SMS Group Collaborate on 5G Business Critical Communications Network

With a data rate of ten gigabits per second, real-time applications of large-scale plants can be used more securely and more flexibly in production while cutting emissions at the same time

SMS is building its own “private 5G Campus network” for research and development at its Hilchenbach location in the Siegerland. Together with Mugler and Ericsson, a private 5G infrastructure was set up here that enables not only the testing of the highest mobile communications standard currently available, but also the advancement of new developments for the metallurgical industry. The industry is facing immense challenges when it comes to the development of new materials and the reduction of energy consumption and emissions. To achieve these far-reaching goals, a high degree of automation, digitalization in a real-time network environment is required.

The use of a private 5G network offers a whole array of approaches to solutions, which SMS is now testing for the first time on an industrial scale and developing for customers in the metallurgical industry around the world.

A “private 5G network” means creating your own network infrastructure based on a frequency and coverage area licensed for the customer that enables the worldwide provision and processing of data in real time.

The private 5G standalone Campus network used at SMS provides the basis for an initial test environment for the implementation of various 5G use cases. The network based on Ericsson Private 5G Technology (EP5G) was implemented by Mugler. Thanks to the efficient collaboration of all project partners, the system went live just four weeks after the project was launched.

Tests are carried out on applications from the fields of mobility and automated guided vehicles (AGV), the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and lone worker applications. These are integrated and comprehensively tested at SMS’s Hilchenbach site, with the aim of optimizing their practical implementation. Moreover, the new private 5G network location serves as a platform for putting into practice the findings gained within the framework of the 5G-Furios research projects being run and funded by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the European Union’s Horizon 2020 project Zero-SWARM, and the CLOUD56 research project of the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV). The SMS test environment offers a unique opportunity to test use cases internally and to present them to potential customers in a clear and illustrative way. The 5G Campus network represents an important step in the evaluation of advanced digitalization technologies and their applications in the steel industry.