Rohde & Schwarz aids Industry 4.0 wireless research

The test equipment is used for distributed real-time radio spectrum and interference monitoring.

To realise industry 4.0 use cases such as mobile robots or automated guided vehicles, industrial network deployments must guarantee very high availability, reliability, and in many cases low latency communications.

5G NR technology including its latest enhancements specified in 3GPP Release 16 enables ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC), ideal for private campus network deployments.

However, as with any wireless system, the communication link is subject to potential interference on the deployed spectrum bands.

The Industrial Radio Lab (IRL) Dresden is dedicated to researching and testing radio systems for industrial applications.

Rohde & Schwarz has provided its high-performance network scanners to the IRL Dresden for distributed real-time radio spectrum and interference monitoring.

It enables researchers to gather important data on how to detect, locate and prevent interference and to keep a local spectrum band clear for reliable wireless connectivity. 

IRL Dresden is one of the four regional labs of the Industrial Radio Lab Germany (IRLG) that engages in research and development of current and future wireless technologies in industry.

The IRLG creates innovations, supports companies, and collaborates with stakeholders in economy and politics to ensure knowledge transfer towards a digital society. IRL Dresden has a particular focus on detection, localisation, and mitigation of interference and improving network resilience through real-time measurements of time-variant channels and cooperative spectrum sensing.

Anne Stephan, Vice President Mobile Network Testing at Rohde & Schwarz, says: “Industrial campus network deployments, whether based on private spectrum or provided through network slices from a public operator, generally establish a demanding use case scenario. By partnering with a leading research institute like the IRL Dresden we not only support fundamental research, but gain first-hand insights that we can use to adapt our leading mobile network testing solutions for Industry 4.0.”