5G, also known as Fifth Generation Mobile Networks, is an emerging global telecommunication system designed for the next generation of significantly higher wireless data bandwidths to support a variety of consumer, commercial, and industrial applications. On promise are data rates of 10-100 mbps for tens of thousands of simultaneous users in the metropolitan area, with 1 gbps indoors and connectivity for hundreds of thousands of simultaneously connected sensors. As important as these enhanced bandwidths will be the software extensibility and configurability of the 5G network, making it possible to partition and customize network bandwidth and services for a variety of site- and area-specific applications to support diverse devices at the network edge.
RISELab and our industrial sponsors Ericsson, Intel, and GE, partnered with Honeywell, launched the 5G Innovators Initiative (5GI2) in February 2017. These partners are world leaders in telecommunications equipment and services, computing for data centers and edge devices, as well as diverse industrial applications in warehousing and manufacturing. RISELab beings to bear our desire to apply real-time, secure machine learning to data-driven applications in these industrial domains.
5GI2 brings these groups together to explore and test new network and distributed edge technologies and services across the stack of devices, networks, cloud, platforms, and applications. In particular, the five of us are investigating, through 5GI2’s open industry initiative, how our complementary expertise can accelerate the development of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). By working with these industry leaders, RISELab has the unique opportunity to transition the secure machine learning technologies we are developing into the hands of leading edge customers of GE and Honeywell.
Ericsson and Intel are facilitating discussions with GE and Honeywell on potential joint pilot projects in the domains of field service, warehousing, transportation, and manufacturing. The focus of the network edge will be workers, vehicles, production machinery, and even assembled components, augmented with intelligent connectivity and devices, spanning from wearables to embedded sensors in the local and metropolitan areas. The pilots ultimately selected will provide detailed requirements for the network, cloud, and 5G connectivity, from the perspectives of network speed and responsiveness, to end-user security and analytics.
5GI2 anticipates that as other participants join the initiative, the pilots will expand to other industries where 5G can enable societal improvements, such as autonomous driving, smart and connected cities, and healthcare. The initiative is committed to facilitating accessibility and transparency of results, thus encouraging technology transfer and progress in support of 5G industry standards.