Siemens has launched its first industry-ready 5G routers in India, a critical component for the manufacturing industry in its digital transformation journey. Siemens industrial 5G routers Scalance MUM856-1 and MUM853- will enable enhanced Mobile broadband transmission, massive machine type communication and ultra-reliable low latencies. TimesTech interacted with Suprakash Chaudhuri, Head- Digital Industries, Siemens Limited, India to learn more about Siemens 5G routers and its use in Industry 4.0 and automation.
Read the full interview here:
TimesTech: What are the features of Siemens 5G routers and how it could help industries?
Suprakash: Enhanced Mobile Broadband Connectivity (eMBB), Massive Machine Type Communication (MMTC) and Ultra-low latency & Reliable connection (URLLC) are the three important factors for realizing 5G applications. With the launch of our SCALANCE MUM853-1 and SCALANCE MUM856-1 routers, our customers can achieve extremely high data rates (enhanced mobile broadband, eMBB) that support easy and secure remote access use cases, greater reliability, and lower power consumption delivering streamlined 5G connectivity.
The compact SCALANCE MUM853-1 router is designed for cabinet use, while the rugged IP65 housing of the SCALANCE MUM856-1 means it can be directly mounted on stationary or mobile components. The built-in IPv6 support and the fallback to lower cellular standards (4G, 3G) whenever 5G connectivity is not available, make SCALANCE MUM853-1 and MUM856-1 the required flexibility in the OT environment. Because they use VXLAN, the routers already enable PROFINET communication via private 5G networks (Release 15), meaning they can leverage new potentials for industrial enterprises.
TimesTech: How will the launch of the industry-ready 5G routers is a milestone on the path to Industry 4.0?
Suprakash: Manufacturing companies around the world are under extreme competitive pressure due to shorter business and product lifecycles. To compete globally, Industrial companies must constantly focus and improve their processes and find innovative ways to respond and adapt quickly to changing market requirements. New applications like Industrial Edge, remote diagnostics and maintenance, autonomous machines, intralogistics, and Augmented Reality applications for service technicians promise major potential in this area. Leveraging cyber-physical systems and striving towards ever more automation and autonomous decisions in environments such as smart factories, autonomous vehicles, smart buildings, smart cities, and connected industrial applications, requires substantial resources to deal with the resulting amount of data that needs to be gathered, analyzed, and transferred. The success of these applications depends on extremely reliable wireless broadband communication with the lowest possible latencies.
Thanks to reliable, powerful broadband transmission with massive machine connectivity and ultra-low latencies, Industrial 5G is the response to a need for end-to-end wireless networking of production, maintenance, and logistics, ensuring a significant improvement in efficiency and greater flexibility in industrial added value.
TimesTech: How 5G can help in end-to-end integration of automation systems to accelerate digital transformation?
Suprakash: To thrive-in and sustain in today’s fierce competition, the industrial companies need to be more efficient and flexible. Highly digitalized can quickly cope up with the sudden changes arising in the market. The end-to-end integration of automation brings together processes that were previously separate. It breaks down traditional silos and helps bridge the gaps between software and hardware, IT and OT, shop floor and top floor an end-to-end integration of system. Connecting data for product, production and performance. Further, integrated cutting-edge technologies in the Digital Enterprise portfolio enable smart usage of data. This paves the way for the next level of the digital transformation of industry with the convergence of information technology and operational technology.
The industrial 5G user equipment is also one of the critical components for the manufacturing industry in its digital transformation journey offering long-term benefits to a wide range of customer segments like intralogistics, autonomous machines, industrial edge, remote diagnostics, augmented reality, assisted work, wireless backhaul, edge computing and mobile equipment that rely on a backbone of strong communication. Thus, in an integrated automation system, 5G acts as the key aggregator enabling faster, reliable, and secure communication within the IT/OT environment accelerating the digital transformation of an enterprise.
TimesTech: What is your outlook for Industry 4.0?
Suprakash: The industrial world is subjected to rapidly evolving challenges. It is essential to collect, understand and use the massive amount of data created in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). The Digital Enterprise is doing exactly this by combining the real and the digital worlds. As a result, the infinite amount of data allows us to use our finite resources efficiently and with that make the industry more sustainable. Further, digitalization and automation are the game changers to meet these challenges on the way to Industry 4.0. Siemens solutions for the Digital Enterprise enable our customers to invest in future-proof solutions for the gradual implementation of Industry 4.0
