A new £4.7m project to develop ways to make 5G Open RAN more accessible and fit for purpose for the manufacturing sector has been launched by an industrial consortium of specialist partners.
The Factory of the Future Open RAN (FoFoRAN) project aims to explore how manufacturers of all sizes can benefit from open radio access networks (Open RAN). Open RAN is a mobile network architecture concept that provides for the use of non-proprietary subcomponents from different manufacturers. vendor. This allows technologies from different companies to work together instead of using only a single supplier.
The program has secured £2.7m as part of the Government’s Open Networks Research and Development Fund, with match funding from industry, bringing the total project cost to £4.7m. The research is led by research engineers from his AMRC North West, which is part of the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Center (AMRC) Innovation Cluster and a member of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult.
BAE Systems, Dassault Systèmes, AQL, Productive Machines and SafeNetics are partners on the project, with support from the project’s alliance partners the Royal Air Force and British telecommunications company Telent.
Dr Aparajithan Sivanathan, head of digital technology at AMRC North West, based in Samlesbury, Lancashire, says manufacturers of all sizes need better connectivity, higher bandwidth and nearly He emphasized that there is a huge demand to achieve zero latency. It will help open up the communications supply chain and allow different companies to provide different parts of his 5G infrastructure.
“Manufacturers are currently choosing single-vendor solutions for 5G deployments, which are somewhat inflexible and do not meet all the unique requirements of advanced connected manufacturing use cases. , an option that is out of reach for small manufacturing businesses,” he said. “Individual manufacturers should be free to choose the right components for their purposes and network their vendor options, equipment suppliers and services at different costs.
“Open RAN has the potential to be more affordable, interoperable, secure, reliable, and deliver the capabilities the industry needs. We look forward to further innovative solutions in these areas. We are excited to further develop our research in Open RAN with the hopes of producing results.”
As part of the Government’s Open Networks Research and Development Fund, £88m of investment has been allocated to 19 different projects to increase the resilience of the UK’s mobile networks, strengthen their competitiveness and support innovation within the 5G communications supply chain. and to ensure that the country does not become overly dependent on any particular form of technology.
The FoFoRAN project is scheduled to run until March 2025 and aims to:
- Deploy an open RAN network from scratch.
- Extend and test partially existing interoperable networks consisting of components from different vendors to explore interoperability characteristics.
- Use an existing functional single vendor network as a benchmark.
- Compare a true open RAN approach to a highly interoperable network approach.
- Build and test native 5G high-performance devices with manufacturing communication interfaces.
Project focus areas will help evaluate technical characteristics, performance, and potential deployment challenges compared to current commercial single-vendor network deployments. It also helps identify whether network services can be standardized. For digital manufacturing use cases.
AMRC North West is one of the leaders in exploring 5G connectivity in the manufacturing sector and has its own digital manufacturing connectivity testbed developed as part of the 5G Factory of the Future programme. FoFoRAN’s consortium partners bring a wide range of additional knowledge and skills to the project, including cyber security, use cases, software and network solutions.
AQL Chairman Professor Adam Beaumont said: “We are a UK regulated fixed and mobile network operator whose mission is to enable innovators to get to market faster with a reliable and secure set of communications capabilities.”
“We demonstrate our capabilities by demonstrating how our open access, open standards infrastructure can support and deploy shared fixed and wireless technologies, along with powerful analytics and performance reporting. Looking to the future, our vision is to leverage our extensive experience and track record in cryptographic authentication to further embed “trust technology” into the community. We believe this project is an excellent testing ground for validating strong layered security models for connected devices and communication infrastructure. ”
James Leadbetter, team leader within the Factory of the Future at BAE Systems, said: Projects like 5G FoFoRAN enable us to understand how to further engage and expand our supply chain and discover new solutions that help increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our manufacturing sector in line with our core business drivers. It is becoming increasingly important to ”
Mark Overton, Managing Director, EuroNorth, Dassault Systèmes said: “As a pioneer in virtual twin technology, Dassault Systèmes is proud to collaborate with industry leaders in a consortium aimed at exploring accessible and affordable 5G open RAN options for manufacturing industries. .
“We believe in the power of collaboration to drive innovation, and this initiative underscores our commitment to leveraging cutting-edge technology to strengthen the manufacturing sector. Together, we We will not only embrace the future of connectivity, but also shape it so that it is inclusive and sustainable for all.”
Erdem Ozturk, Founder and CEO of Productive Machines said: “Productive Machines is developing remote access to an online digital twin to predict machining processes before manufacturing and avoid harmful chatter vibrations. This online optimization and ability to adjust parameters on the fly This enables increased productivity, reduced waste, and higher quality parts from anywhere in the world.”
SafeNetics Director David Lund added: “FoFoRAN presents new challenges for communications security, extending far beyond the bits and bytes of communications to the sensing and control of operational technologies and the resiliency of manufacturing processes.”
The 19 projects in the Open Network Ecosystem Competition will help realize the UK’s ambition to become a world leader in communications research and development through investment in cutting-edge open hardware and software.
Julia López, Minister for Digital Infrastructure at the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, said: “British expertise is driving new innovation, enabling us to deliver everything from advanced medicine to sustainable energy systems. “It will be.” Reliable mobile connectivity is an essential part of our lives and opens up new opportunities for people and businesses across the country.
“Some of the biggest names in business and industry have offered to support this project. This is an important demonstration of our position as a world leader in communications technology, and it is This confirms our commitment to deploying superior connectivity.”
To find out more about the project and keep up to date, visit amrc.co.uk/foforan.
