Description

The fourth industrial revolution, also known as Industry 4.0, will bring digital transformation to production chains through next-generation corporate networks. With this transformation, the capture and exchange of data between machines, actuator devices, sensors, robots and people will be carried out through a totally digital ecosystem, much more efficient, flexible, resilient and fault tolerant.

To achieve this goal, advanced 5G/6G wireless communications technologies and Time Sensitive Networks (TSN) will be key. Specifically, advanced 5G/6G wireless systems will complement and even replace wired connections on the production floor. This implies much more flexible deployments, with lower installation costs. On the other hand, TSN encompasses a set of standards to provide deterministic communications (that is, with limited and guaranteed latency and bit rate performance), reliable and high performance. As a result, TSN and 5G are technologies with great potential whose integration will allow the implementation of real-time, wireless and deterministic networks, necessary for Industry 4.0 applications. Both the integration between TSN and advanced 5G/6G and its application in industrial environments are currently in a primitive phase at an experimental level, and there are no experimental platforms.

The 6GNETWORKS-LAB project proposes the creation of an experimentation platform with the necessary functionalities and equipment for the study and evaluation of the most relevant use cases in industry 4.0. Specifically, 6GNETWORKS-LAB will provide:

• Solutions for very low latency and ultra-reliable communications in millimeter band.
• Synchronization solutions for the integration of Advanced 5G/6G networks with TSN.
• Algorithms based on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to manage, orchestrate and configure networks that integrate Advanced 5G/6G networks with TSN.
• An Advanced 5G/6G integration demonstrator with TSN for: (a) industrial management, (b) PLC-sensor and PLC-actuator communications, and (c) remote control of robotic arms through haptic sensors.

Radio and network equipment

• Amarisoft Callbox Ultimate Base Station. This equipment provides the possibility of carrying out 5G deployments in laboratory environments, including the possibility of creating several 4G and 5G cells simultaneously (up to 2 5G cells with a bandwidth of 100 MHz each and 2 4G cells with a bandwidth of 20 MHz, among other configurations). It operates in frequency bands up to 6 GHz. The included license (AMARI NW 8000) allows aggregate speeds up to 8 Gbps.
• AMARI NW FR2 Option license and FR2 hardware package (24~30GHz) and FR2 hardware package (37~40GHz) hardware adapters. This license and hardware equipment allow the capabilities of the Callbox Ultimate base station to be extended to support millimeter bands (FR2 in 24-30 GHz and 37-40 GHz), thus allowing much higher performance in terms of bandwidth and latency.
• AMARI UE Simbox E 064. This equipment includes a high-performance PC with the SDR equipment and the necessary licenses to implement up to 64 5G terminals in order to perform stress tests on the 5G network under analysis.
• 2 outdoor base stations from Amarisoft (AMARI vBBU) and RRH from Sunwave (RRH Package (n78(3600-3800)), as well as the AMARI NW 4000 license. These devices implement an outdoor 5G base station consisting of a baseband unit (BBU) and a remote radio headend (RRU).This will allow pilot tests in open environments, which will enable experimentation on mobility (e.g. handovers between cells) and the creation of demonstrators in outdoor environments, allowing the creation of prototype networks for cases more realistic to use.
• 2 Ramsey RF Test Shielded Enclosure + connectors (power, USB, antennas). It is a Faraday cage that, thanks to its electromagnetic isolation up to 8 GHz, allows laboratory experiments to be carried out without the need for licensed frequencies in the 5G band. For outdoor environments, a temporary license for research in the n78 band will be requested from the Ministry. Connectors for power, USB (for device control), and antennas (for base station connection) are included to create a complete, manageable experimentation environment right out of the box.
• 2 TSN switches with 8 1Gbps SFP ports, with 802.1Q VLAN tagging, 802.1Qbv time-aware traffic shaping, 802.1CB redundant transmissions, 802.1AS implementation, which provides the specific PTP profile for TSN systems (gPTP) for time synchronization.
• 16 fiber SFP modules, 1000BASE-BX10, for TSN switches.
• 4 network cards with support for PTP, which allows servers to connect directly to the TSN network.

Computing equipment

• 4 Intensive computing servers with 2 AMD 7282 2.8 GHz Processors, 16 cores, 256 GB of DDR4/3200 Mhz ECC memory, 2 NVIDIA A40 TESLA EDU PCI-E 4.0 48GB GPU cards, NVLink Bridge GPU connection, 1 SSD disk 2 TB, 4-U G482-Z54 rack with 3 power supplies, configured in CentOS 7.9 and CUDA 11. To carry out the study and analysis of the AI algorithms developed, it is necessary to expand the current computing infrastructure with these 4 servers of calculation.
• Cabinet with 47 bays, to house the equipment (mainly servers and switches).

Measurement and test equipment

• A Spirent TestCenter N4U chassis and controller to house the test modules needed for testing, including touch screen management, intelligent power and fan control, fast boot, and system firmware upgrades. The reduced size of the system facilitates its relocation when the conditions of the use cases require it.
• A 16-port Spirent FX2 10/1G interface card that enables layer 2-3 traffic generation and analysis, providing high performance for layer 2-7 testing with reduced power consumption. In addition, with this card it is possible to use a single module during the entire life cycle of the test. Provides latency statistics (average, maximum, and minimum values, packet arrival timestamps, etc.). It will therefore be used for functional, compliance and performance testing of the network infrastructure that is deployed.
• Test software including Spirent's BPK-1001A, TPK-1000 and TPK-1001 packages for layer 2-3 traffic generation and analysis. This software provides a great variety of statistical results in real time, allowing to evaluate and diagnose the system's functionalities and to analyze the scalability and performance of the different switching and routing equipment. It will run on the Spirent TestCenter N4U platform and the Spirent FX2 interface card.
• A continuous Swabian Time Tagger Ultra frequency counter and time interval analyzer with 4 channels and additional input for clock signal. This system allows measuring the temporal synchronization between devices and carrying out synchronization tests with signals of 1 pulse per second. It has a resolution of 42 picoseconds and several USB 3.0 ports. Perform temporary labeling of a packet flow. It includes the necessary software and updates.

Industrial Use Case Equipment

• FAS-200 SE I4.0 Automated Flexible Assembly Cell - Siemens 1500 Cobot Configuration, from the manufacturer Alecop: The FAS-200 Industry 4.0 Special Edition system simulates a real assembly process with five different manufacturing stages: 1. Assembly, 2. Handling, 3. Quality Inspection, 4. Transfer, 5. Warehouse and Expedition. It integrates Industry 4.0 technologies: advanced electropneumatics, vacuum technology, sensors, UID (Unique Identifier Device): RFID identification systems and binary identification systems, Smart IO-link sensors, Smart light and sound device with IO-link, Artificial vision, Servo-controlled electric actuators, Industrial controllers (Ethernet communication), HMI, Augmented Reality, Distributed Inputs and Outputs, Failure generation systems, and Collaborative Robot. The system is accompanied by a SCADA application to supervise the process carried out, and an online integrated MES Production Execution system. The FAS-200 system is required to deploy an Industry 4.0 factory production system with an industrial network to serve as a proving ground for evaluating TSN and Advanced 5G/6G network deployments.
• Haptic gloves (left and right), with accessories to integrate Oculus and HTC controllers, and communication and development software SenseComm, SDK for Unity and SDK for Unreal engine. Together with the robotic arm, it will allow the evaluation of the use of the TSN and Advanced 5G/6G prototypes in communications for the remote control of robotic arms by means of haptic gloves.
• Sensitive robot arm from manufacturer Kuka, with cable set, gripper, controller, KUKA iiQKA.OS 0.5 operating system, coact toolbox, smartPAD pro, KUKA.Sim 4.1 simulator/programmer, including transport. Together with the haptic gloves, it will allow the evaluation of the use of the TSN and Advanced 5G/6G prototypes in communications for the remote control of robotic arms by means of haptic gloves.
• Virtual reality glasses with controls. These glasses are necessary to allow the user to visualize the effect of remote control of the robotic arm with the haptic gloves.