Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TARGET-X (Trial PlAtform foR 5G EvoluTion – Cross-Industry On Large Scale)
Berichtszeitraum: 2023-01-01 bis 2023-12-31
The TARGET-X project accelerates the digital transformation of four key verticals: energy, construction, automotive, and manufacturing. Large scale trials and pilots in testbeds throughout Europe will demonstrate, validate, and evaluate the potential of 5G/6G in real environments. The testbeds for the four verticals in TARGET-X are spread across two locations, with four testbeds being part of the 5G-Industry Campus Europe (5G-ICE). The fifth testbed is located on the automotive testing grounds of IDIADA in Spain. The facilities will enable testing and evaluating the most advanced 5G/6G technologies, such as real-time communication, localisation, self-description, digital twinning, and sensor-network data fusion. To assess the effectiveness of the developed technologies, the project’s evaluation will focus on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Key Value Indicators (KVIs), such as sustainability, safety, security, and privacy. This paves the way for new business models and a methodological assessment framework for economic and social evaluation. The development of these solutions will be supported and guided by the TARGET-X consortium, which includes SMEs, Information Technology, and Operational Technology partners, and up to 100 Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP) entities.
In TARGET-X, four different verticals are contributing to individual use cases. The project intends to ensure the evolution of the testbeds by gradually introducing new technology elements from the technology clusters. The effects on the use cases will be evaluated with the help of a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) and Key Value Indicator (KVI) framework.
Use Cases of TARGET-X Verticals:
MANUFACTURING
1: Inline Quality Assurance for Machining
2: Environmental Condition Monitoring
3: Trace and Tracking of Workpieces
ROBOTICS
1: Edge-Controlled Automation with Mobile Manipulation
ENERGY
1: Energy Monitoring and Energy Consumption Awareness
AUTOMOTIVE
1: Cooperative Perception
2: Digital Twin
3: Predictive Quality of Service for Tele-operated Vehicles.
CONSTRUCTION
1: 5G for Automation of Deconstruction Processes
2: 5G for Energy Analytics of Construction Processes
The work performed in the testbeds will focus on:
Service differentiation
The density and variation of services in 5G and beyond networks will increase as more and more use cases from industry verticals are transferred to wireless networks. By classifying services in different classes, we introduce logical differentiation of services, on the same bearers. Several mechanisms exist to provide different service levels to different classes. These mechanisms will be further studied, and their effectiveness will be validated by introducing selected mechanisms to use cases in construction, energy, and automotive verticals.
mmWave spectrum
The need for more bandwidth in mobile networks increases constantly. More connected devices with ever increasing payloads drive the need for bandwidth, both from device to the network, as well as from the network to the devices. The introduction of mmWave spectrum in 5G is a first step towards more bandwidth availability in future.
The mmWave tests and introduction into use cases of TARGET-X are planned to be executed in the cloud-native production testbed. A mmWave antenna was mounted on the shopfloor and the needed RAN configuration was performed. After the installation activities, a few available devices were attached to the deployed mmWave to perform first connectivity and propagation tests.
Asset Administration Shell
The activities for Asset Administration Shell have started with an introduction of the concepts of the Asset Administration Shell(s) to the TARGET-X consortium. This internal competence build-up session took place shortly after the project kick-off, to secure that all partners have a common understanding of AAS when elaborating their use cases scenarios.
Indoor positioning
Indoor positioning with 5G is seen by industries as a key differentiator as it enables communication and positioning via the same platform, and thus rendering the need for 2 different, and possibly disconnected platforms, obsolete. Positioning with 5G can be seen as a step in the evolution towards JCAS in 6G [Eri21]. JCAS or Joint Communication and Sensing builds on the concept that the radio waves, used for communication purposes, can also be used to sense the coverage field for objects. The information that is gathered in this way, can be used to optimize the network, or provide positional information of the detected objects. A part of the TARGET-X robotics trial site was chosen for the initial introduction of a prototypic indoor positioning setup. At this site, 2 areas were identified that offer interesting conditions for experiments with 5G indoor positioning.
Real-time ecosystem
The need for reliable, deterministic, and low latency communication remains unchanged in industrial communication. TARGET-X introduces several use cases where the need for reliable, deterministic, and low latency communication is key. In the first year of execution, TARGET-X focused on the execution of measurements, both with state-of-the-art 5G networks, as well as with prototype implementations. The measurements, combined with the requirement definition with the consortium members, gave additional insights on the communication needs for the use cases.
Use Cases of TARGET-X Verticals:
MANUFACTURING
1: Inline Quality Assurance for Machining
2: Environmental Condition Monitoring
3: Trace and Tracking of Workpieces
ROBOTICS
1: Edge-Controlled Automation with Mobile Manipulation
ENERGY
1: Energy Monitoring and Energy Consumption Awareness
AUTOMOTIVE
1: Cooperative Perception
2: Digital Twin
3: Predictive Quality of Service for Tele-operated Vehicles.
CONSTRUCTION
1: 5G for Automation of Deconstruction Processes
2: 5G for Energy Analytics of Construction Processes
The work performed in the testbeds will focus on:
Service differentiation
The density and variation of services in 5G and beyond networks will increase as more and more use cases from industry verticals are transferred to wireless networks. By classifying services in different classes, we introduce logical differentiation of services, on the same bearers. Several mechanisms exist to provide different service levels to different classes. These mechanisms will be further studied, and their effectiveness will be validated by introducing selected mechanisms to use cases in construction, energy, and automotive verticals.
mmWave spectrum
The need for more bandwidth in mobile networks increases constantly. More connected devices with ever increasing payloads drive the need for bandwidth, both from device to the network, as well as from the network to the devices. The introduction of mmWave spectrum in 5G is a first step towards more bandwidth availability in future.
The mmWave tests and introduction into use cases of TARGET-X are planned to be executed in the cloud-native production testbed. A mmWave antenna was mounted on the shopfloor and the needed RAN configuration was performed. After the installation activities, a few available devices were attached to the deployed mmWave to perform first connectivity and propagation tests.
Asset Administration Shell
The activities for Asset Administration Shell have started with an introduction of the concepts of the Asset Administration Shell(s) to the TARGET-X consortium. This internal competence build-up session took place shortly after the project kick-off, to secure that all partners have a common understanding of AAS when elaborating their use cases scenarios.
Indoor positioning
Indoor positioning with 5G is seen by industries as a key differentiator as it enables communication and positioning via the same platform, and thus rendering the need for 2 different, and possibly disconnected platforms, obsolete. Positioning with 5G can be seen as a step in the evolution towards JCAS in 6G [Eri21]. JCAS or Joint Communication and Sensing builds on the concept that the radio waves, used for communication purposes, can also be used to sense the coverage field for objects. The information that is gathered in this way, can be used to optimize the network, or provide positional information of the detected objects. A part of the TARGET-X robotics trial site was chosen for the initial introduction of a prototypic indoor positioning setup. At this site, 2 areas were identified that offer interesting conditions for experiments with 5G indoor positioning.
Real-time ecosystem
The need for reliable, deterministic, and low latency communication remains unchanged in industrial communication. TARGET-X introduces several use cases where the need for reliable, deterministic, and low latency communication is key. In the first year of execution, TARGET-X focused on the execution of measurements, both with state-of-the-art 5G networks, as well as with prototype implementations. The measurements, combined with the requirement definition with the consortium members, gave additional insights on the communication needs for the use cases.
The expected results are:
The investigation of 5G/6G and peripherical technologies across the whole value chain (devices, connectivity, service delivery) to identify, assess and propose new 5G/6G features targeting connected industries.
Enabling future use cases by self-adapting communication networks
Dynamic allocation of communication and computation resources across IT&OT
KPI and Key (Societal) Value Indicator (KVI) generation from real business cases
Enhance the 5G/6G ecosystem in the manufacturing & robotics, automotive, energy, and construction verticals
The investigation of 5G/6G and peripherical technologies across the whole value chain (devices, connectivity, service delivery) to identify, assess and propose new 5G/6G features targeting connected industries.
Enabling future use cases by self-adapting communication networks
Dynamic allocation of communication and computation resources across IT&OT
KPI and Key (Societal) Value Indicator (KVI) generation from real business cases
Enhance the 5G/6G ecosystem in the manufacturing & robotics, automotive, energy, and construction verticals