The mobile radio standard 5G enables digital communication almost in real time and high data transmission rates of up to 20 Gbit/s. The 5G standard is the first of its kind in the world. What counts for the industry, however, is that 5G facilitates sophisticated communication from machine to machine in the industrial 4.0 scenario. In 5G networks, up to one million terminal devices per square kilometer should be able to transmit and receive. Latency times of up to 1 ms are very close to industrial requirements. Reliability is also fully guaranteed. For the construction of local 5G networks, the regulatory authority is likely to allocate frequencies in the 3.7 to 3.8 GHz range and at 26 GHz to companies, regional network operators or municipalities upon request. In Hall 16, visitors to this year's HANNOVER MESSE will not only experience the first applications in the exhibition, but will also be able to experience experts in the Forum and Congress who are already playing through the most important scenarios today. Five facts an entrepreneur needs to know about 5G:

1. real-time communication with 5G

If sensors, machines, devices and IT systems interact with each other in a smart factory of the future, then digital data exchange is the basis - the limits of wired, classic communication are set here. At the same time, it reduces the flexibility for moving machines and devices within a hall. The 5G standard increases the data transmission rate in mobile networks tenfold to more than ten gigabits per second. Thanks to considerably lower latency times, 5G enables machine communication in real time - a prerequisite for the coordination of machines and processes in factory automation.

Data rates of 1 to 10 gigabits per second are possible, so tomorrow's mobile communications will be 10 to 100 times higher than a typical LTE connection with 100 megabits per second. What is decisive, however, is the guaranteed minimum data rate and the latency time, which stands for the reaction speed with which the server and smartphone communicate.

2 Reduced energy consumption with 5G

The above-mentioned data rates of up to ten gigabits per second, a response time of one millisecond and a reduced energy requirement that enables battery life of up to ten years make 5G the standard solution for communication in networked factories and production facilities.

3 Complex industrial applications with 5G

New paths in industrial communication: According to the dynamically developing scenarios of industry 4.0 and newly emerging business models, for example in service, completely new industrial applications can be realized that place the highest demands on reliability and real-time transmission capability - a Mecca of possibilities for flexibility, mobility and convertibility of industrial plants.

Novel networks of driverless transport systems and mobile robots, mobile operating devices and new human-machine interfaces, such as applications of augmented reality, are conceivable. In addition, 5G also enables completely new manufacturing concepts by means of wirelessly networked, highly flexible production modules that can be easily combined with each other without the need for cabling.

4. process monitoring with 5G

Classical wired technologies such as fieldbus and Ethernet as well as wireless technologies such as Bluetooth or WLAN are absolutely behind with the process monitoring possibilities of 5G with immense data throughput, very low latency times under one millisecond. The heterogeneity of the various networks will quickly decrease because the 5G wireless network is recommended for applications from the shop floor to the office and can also be combined with other networks. 5G defines both mobile communication hardware (antenna technology) and communication protocol.

5. flexible machine concepts with 5G

The next advantage is the simple flexibilisation of machines, which must be reconfigurable quickly and without a long service life. For individual production up to batch size 1, 5G offers ideal peripherals for wireless industrial communication and process optimization. Mobile radio technology is more reliable, reacts more robustly to high workloads and is equally suitable for connecting sensors, machines and human-operated terminals. The interaction is supported by so-called network slicing and the reduction of the signal propagation time up to 1 ms.

In addition to these five advantages with 5G, it should not be forgotten that the new network also requires completely new technology. Until now, only four transmit and receive units have been installed in a 4G/LTE antenna and sixty-four in a 5G antenna - a much more targeted and close-meshed signal supply! This fact ensures more stable connections that hardly break off and drastically reduces response times in data traffic.

Is the final 5G technology already in place? The auction of the German 5G frequencies by the Federal Network Agency is still pending. Only then will the frequency range for the providers emerge, whereby frequencies around 3.5 GHz will be involved.