The Global Certification Forum (GCF) and the 5G Alliance for Connected Industries and Automation (5G-ACIA) – as a working group of ZVEI – Electro and Digital Industry Association – announce the signing of a cooperation agreement (COOP) to jointly investigate industrial 5G certification needs.

This cooperation agreement brings together experts from operational technology (OT) companies and information and communication technology (ICT) companies with experts from the Global Certification Forum. It is the beginning of a collaboration to share information on Industrial IoT use cases and related requirements for testing and certification of 5G products. Another main goal of the COOP is to evaluate applicable testing and certification programs for 5G Industrial IoT products. Both parties are also interested in ensuring interoperable devices, networks, and services to enable the high-quality, reliable, and secure wireless communications required for industrial use cases in automation, factories, etc. worldwide.

GCF’s mission is to facilitate the three steps to certification: Test-Certify-Connect. GCF enables the testing of mobile and IoT products and manages industry-agreed programs to certify them. In doing so, GCF gives confidence to network operators and industrial users to connect GCF certified products to networks and services.

The mission of 5G-ACIA is to ensure the best possible applicability of 5G technology for connected industries, in particular the manufacturing and process industries. 5G-ACIA ensures that the interests and particular aspects of the industrial domain are adequately considered in 5G standardization and regulation. 5G-ACIA further ensures that the ongoing 5G developments are understood by and transferred to the industrial domain. This includes possible integration concepts and migration paths, together with the evaluation of key technologies emerging from 5G standardization bodies.