A year has passed, and came another opportunity to take an insight in the industrial future. This year the buzz words at Hannovermesse 2019 were Internet of Things and 5G in industrial processes.
Of course the main goal of the trip was to visit the stand of ePlan and share some experience… but… as I was already there… I took the opportunity to widen my horizons on other topics as well.
First of all I must admit I was quite ignorant about the features of the upcoming 5G network technology. I thought that it would work just like usual GSM/3G/4G networks. That means, you have a few network carriers through the region and if you want to use the technology, you sign a contract with one of them. The speeds would be higher, the density of base stations too.
Now I learned that the 5G technology is meant to be used in smaller networks too. So a company could use this technology as a backbone of a LAN (Local Area Network) or Industrial Ethernet Network (LAN) in its own. The promised latency times are very low, down to a millisecond, we have a promise of real-time operation, high availability and automatic recovery.
One of the most interesting and impressive 5G exhibits I had seen at the Hanovermesse was a hexapod which was remotely controlled via 5G. The controller was located nearby and the control commands were transmitted through the 5G network directly to the actuators that were moving the hexapod’s legs. It was the first time I had seen directly networked actuators, amazing. The movement of the robot was smooth and responsive. It was even “dancing”. On the downside, I had seen it inadvertently shut down when the network cable that was connecting the controller to the 5G access point somehow lost connection.
The vision is to have an Industrial Ethernet network based on 5G technology. The industrial processes are not any more connected to the CPU(s) thorough the means of signal or BUS cabling, but through the “Ether”. That means no more cumbersome and expensive signal and BUS cabling, everything goes through the air.
The other crescent star of the fair was the IoT (Internet of Things). Which is concept that incorporates different technologies which aims to achieve interoperability of different (smart) devices into big networks. 5G from its perspective is just one of the infrastructure technologies that might be used to achieve the desired goal. Some other competing technologies are Bluetooth, LoRA and LPWAN.
But If 5G is so amazing, why do we need those other technologies?
Well, the fact is that a lot of time real-time communication on gigabit bandwidth is not really required in automation, instead what is required is low power consumption, and long distance reach. So we can install remote sensors
The Internet of Things concept is quite promising for plants with installations that require cable coverage of very long distances through hazardous, corrosive or otherwise very aggressive environments.
I have some IT background as I was working a bit on this field in my past and I cannot do otherwise than ask myself some very basic questions.
What happens to this systems if they are exposed by deliberate purpose or as a collateral damage to Jamming signals and part of the devices go simply of-line as a result?
What happens if a small device in an IoT network gets hacked and is being used as a back door to access other devices, systems and networks inside a facility?
Who is going to make sure all of IoT devices, sparse through the whole network, are up to date with the latest firmware? And will the different producers make sure, all the networked devices will remain up-to-date against the latest hacking techniques through the whole length of their expected life time? probably there are even more valid questions regarding the security and stability of such systems I cannot possibly think of at the moment.
The same questions are valid for 5G networks.
It is no surprise, there is a growing number of exhibitors that promote network security service and products. They smell an emerging market. Also there is no doubt, that the work of the IT administrators will become even more interesting and challenging as it is right now.
Between other, I also visited the ePlan stand and I must admit that I had a rather interesting conversation, the best so far and it deserves an own article, which will follow soon.
eplanpreplanning.com 