New 5G abilities mean even driving a crane from kilometres away is possible.
"There are three dimensions to 5G mobile. Two are evolutionary. One is revolutionary", says Andreas Schwarz, Northern head of solution sales at Vodafone Germany, as he explains the next generation of cellular technology promises lower latency, greater capacity and revolutionary network slicing.
Latency is the reaction time of the network from one device to the other. In today's mobile network this is usually measured in tens of milliseconds. That's already impressive.
With 5G, latency will reduce to under 20 milliseconds. He says, if necessary, this can come down to one or two milliseconds. It may be an evolutionary change but Schwarz says it means that businesses can start to think about real time applications.
To put these numbers in perspective, he says, it takes anywhere from 100 to 300 milliseconds to blink your eye.
Higher capacity means faster data transmission for uploading and downloading. It also means more devices can share the same spectrum. Schwarz says this is another evolutionary change. In practice it means data can travel at fibre-like speeds, up to a gigabit-per-second if necessary.
"For the enterprise sector having more capacity is really important. It means many more devices can be connected," he says.
Slicing is the revolutionary change with 5G. Schwarz says it means you still have a single physical infrastructure but can run multiple mobile virtual private networks (mobile VPNs).
"We can give each mobile VPN specific parameters – optimised for specific use cases. You could have a network for emergency services, a network for smart meters, another for high demand, low latency network optimised for real time applications. If a customer wants a bespoke network for an enterprise application, we can also factor that in."
One application of this that Vodafone Germany has enabled allows drivers to remotely control cranes. There, as in New Zealand, crane driving skills are in demand. Builders struggle to find drivers and, when they do, the drivers often spend a lot of time waiting for other site workers in between crane lifting tasks.
Andreas Schwarz, Northern head of solution sales at Vodafone Germany, speaking at Auckland’s VodaTalks event. Photo / Supplied
Allowing drivers to control cranes remotely means a single operator can control cranes on multiple sites, bringing huge efficiency gains. Something that could be especially useful in Auckland where the skyline is dominated by cranes.
Schwarz says remotely steering a crane from, say, 100km away, depends on specific requirements. Slicing means a construction firm can buy the right wireless network for the job for a dedicated timeslot and location of the construction area.
This ability to slice is the most important thing 5G brings to cellular communications. In the past, an application would send data traffic across the network to a server anywhere in the world. With 5G and network slicing it becomes practical to move applications servers much nearer to the point data is used.
These are called edge servers. This approach makes real time control of complex devices like cranes a practical reality. Without low-latency, network slicing and edge servers, this application may not be as safe or reliable.
Another example is a German electronic car start-up which built a factory controlled by a 5G network. The technology's high capacity means all production-line devices can be connected wirelessly, making it easy to reconfigure parts of the production line without the need to continually reset cable connections in a reliable and secure mobile environment.
Schwarz says one reason why wi-fi wasn't a realistic option was because it simply can't handle the sheer density of connected devices across the factory: "When you have a factory and you put in an indoor 5G network, the servers aren't in Dublin or somewhere far away, they can be hosted in the factory. That's how you get low latency. You bring it to the edge."
This highlights another aspect of 5G's attraction for enterprise customers: it reduces complexity for IT managers.
Businesses often use different technologies, with different service level agreements.
Because 5G can give similar performance and network companies like Vodafone can provide customers with quality of service, it makes sense to align certain aspects on 5G.
