Nokia, Telia and Intel carry out 5G manufacturing trials

13 April 2018 | Natalie Bannerman

Nokia, Telia and Intel have successfully carried out an industrial trial using 5G to improve the time sensitive applications and enhance productions in manufacturing.

Using 5G, operators and businesses are able to connect assets and take advantage of new capabilities such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, and automation to transform operations.

"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," Janne Koistinen, director of the 5G program at Telia Finland.

The trial took place at the end of March where Nokia and Intel worked alongside Finnish software startup Finwe at the Nokia base station Conscious Factory in Oulu, using a trial 5G radio access network operating in the 28GHz frequency band.

Nokia deployed the network using its 5G AirScale and Multi-access edge computing platforms. By combining Nokia’s AirFrame data centre with Intel’s Xeon Scalable processors, the network was able to deliver network edge and core cloud capabilities to support the various applications in the 5G environment. The trial also used Intel’s 5G Mobile Trial Platform as the end-user device as well as an integrated video analytics application from Finwe.

Commenting on the trials, Caroline Chan, vice president and general manager of the 5G infrastructure division and Network Platforms Group at Intel, said: "Utilizing the Intel Xeon Scalable Processor family and the Intel Mobile Trial platform allows operators around the globe to provide the computing, connectivity, and analytics to launch new 5G services. We continue to work with Nokia to deliver the infrastructure needed to pave the way to broad market adoption of open, software defined networks for 5G."

The video application was also used to monitor and analyse a video feed of a process on one assembly line. The application used machine learning to alert the assembly line operator of any inconsistencies in the process so they could be corrected in real-time.

During the second trial, Nokia and Telia enabled Telia to offer cloud remote delivery for business customers. This demonstration used Nokia’s AirFrame data centre solution, its Multi-access edge computing platform with Finwe's video analytics application, at Telia's data centre in Helsinki. Nokia says that it will continue to use its Multi-cloud edge computing platform with Finwe’s video analytics application in the Oulu conscious factory over a 4G LTE network.

Using multi-access edge computing together with 5G allows data to be processed close to where it’s needed, significantly reducing latency.

“Nokia's 5G capabilities allow operators such as Telia to leverage machine learning and automation by opening up network data and intelligence, said Marc Rouanne, president of Mobile Networks at Nokia. “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."