Industrial Automation Magazine India

Orange and Schneider Electric run industrial 5G trials in French Factory

Published on : Tuesday 06-10-2020

Schneider Electric Le Vaudreuil factory – a pilot for digital transformation – is the first factory in France to trial industrial 5G.

October 2020 – Schneider Electric and Orange recently announced the first deployment of indoor 5G in the industrial sector in France on experimental frequencies as part of a trial. Operating since March, this first co-innovation project in the Le Vaudreuil factory aims to use 5G in a modern industrial environment to build reliable, scalable and sustainable connectivity solutions for future industrial needs.

Thanks to its low latency, very high throughput and – over time – network slicing, 5G will be a competitive lever for companies, as it will bring noticeable improvement in industrial processes and working methods, especially through mixed reality (augmented and virtual). In the Industrial sector, 5G will help synchronize in real time large amounts of data, which are key to boost performance, facilitate remote working, and ensure optimal production efficiencies.

The indoor 5G-enabled trials will support two use cases: augmented reality applied to maintenance technician activities and the implementation of a telepresence robot for remote visits. Nokia radio AirScale and core equipment has been selected and the experimental frequencies have been allocated by the French regulatory authority. Five indoor 5G antennas were installed inside a part of the factory, covering close to 2,000 m2 of production space with download speeds beyond 1 Gbps, on an experimental network architecture allowing local data processing with edge computing technologies. Building on its co-innovation ecosystem, Orange has proposed to use the recently launched Dell technologies 5G-ready Latitude 9510 business PC to deliver these use cases. This allows Schneider Electric to benefit from the laptop’s embedded computing power, wherever the user is located.

“5G is a breakthrough technology for businesses that will bring numerous industrial applications, such as predictive maintenance, real-time video processing, augmented reality and telepresence. These use cases are powerful and competitive levers that will enable the full potential of Industry 4.0. To make the most of this new mobile network, operators, industrial players, public authorities and companies will have to work together. At Orange, we believe in a co-construction approach. Our co-innovation with Schneider Electric for the factory of the future is an example of this: We are poised to support our industrial partners in their digitalization and in the development of solutions that meet their needs.” said Stéphane Richard, Chairman and CEO, Orange.

"The health, economic and climatic challenges make digitization more important than ever for companies. The pilot conducted with Orange at Le Vaudreuil in a Schneider Electric industrial showcase validates many 5G use cases: augmented reality, remote everywhere, real-time access to data... 5G’s reliability, scalability and durability make it a connectivity solution well adapted to industry 4.0, for greater resilience, competitiveness and sustainability," said Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Chairman and CEO of Schneider Electric.