German 5G industrial market players have jointly selected IS-Wireless as a 5G campus network provider based on the Open RAN model. The choice was made by the CampusDynA project consortium, which consists of several German companies and research institutions such as Gestalt Robotics, T-Systems, Osram, Fraunhofer, and the Werner von Siemens Center for Industry and Science. The network is to be set up in Berlin this year.

The CampusDynA consortium aims to identify the potential of Open RAN-based private 5G networks for industrial applications. It also seeks to experimentally test and evaluate these applications in a real-world working environment. The applications may include autonomous mobile robotics, energy use optimization of production facilities, and providing connectivity to emergency responders and their equipment in a major incident.

Roles & Responsibilities of IS-Wireless

Here, IS-Wireless’s role shall be to support these activities by delivering a disaggregated 5G Radio Access Network. This includes O-RU (radio units), DU (distributed units) and CU (centralized units) components. In addition, IS-Wireless will provide a near-real-time RIC (RAN Intelligent Controller) and suitable xApps to provide the required network performance on demand even for network-demanding applications such as mobile robots.

The effective realization of the 5G Open RAN campus network is of elementary importance for the CampusDynA project to achieve the respective project goals. “Our primary goal in this research project is the optimal allocation of network resources and the associated more efficient bandwidth use. This will allow future AMR models to become much more intelligent. We are proud to participate in this project”, said the Managing Director of Gestalt Robotics, Jens Lambrecht, another participant in the CampusDynA project.

Project stakeholder testimonials

The stakeholders under the CampusDynA banner have provided testimonials expressing their elation about the new-found cooperation and what they aim to achieve with it. “We are pleased to collaborate with IS-Wireless in the future. A stable private 5G network forms the basis for novel edge-controlled AMRs communicating with our NavigateSYS software”, Lambrecht from Gestalt Robotics concludes.

Lutz Schneider, Product Owner of Autonomous Logistics at T-Systems, on what he expects from the soon-to-be-launched testbed: “The testbed at the Werner-von-Siemens Center for Business and Science in Berlin gives us the opportunity to test the latest technology trends, such as Open RAN-based campus networks, in interaction with our ‘Autonomous Logistics’ robotics platform at an early stage and demonstrate them to our customers at the point of value creation.”

Project manager Peter Hoehmann of the Werner von Siemens Center for Business and Science likewise has expectations for the collaboration. “With IS-Wireless’ Open RAN network, we have a strong added value for our industrial infrastructure for the research projects we are doing with our partners.”

The provider’s view on the gig

And what does IS-Wireless themselves have to say about being selected as a provider with such a big responsibility riding on their shoulders? “We are excited to deliver Private 5G based on our latest technology,” says Slawomir Pietrzyk, CEO and founder of IS-Wireless. He further adds, “The fact that we were selected in a challenging, competitive environment shows that we are on the right track with our product development. Both functionality and quality have to be right, especially for Industry 4.0 applications.”

About CampusDyna

CampusDynA is a research project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection. It aims at exploring the capabilities of 5G Open RAN campus networks for dynamic adaptation of networks and applications in industrial use cases. Application areas under investigation include autonomous mobile robotics, resource efficiency of production facilities, and civil security of production environments. Project partners are Gestalt Robotics GmbH, T-Systems International GmbH, OSRAM GmbH, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V. and Werner von Siemens Centre for Industry and Science e.V.l.