Arquitectura de Red de Comunicaciones Inalámbricas para la Industria 4.0

Abstract

Under the Industry 4.0 paradigm, factories of the future will be digitalized and networked factories where components will be able to communicate with each other, and intelligence will be spread among the different elements of the production systems. Different industrial applications will coexist in the same environment demanding very different and stringent communication requirements in terms of latency, reliability and data rate. These applications can vary from virtual reality applications that require high throughput levels to time-critical automation processes demanding low data rates and ultra-high latency. The communication network will be one of the key technological enablers of Industry 4.0. In this context, this paper proposes a hierarchical management architecture that allows the integration of different communication technologies. The proposed architecture considers the use of RAN Slicing and Cloud RAN as enabling technologies to achieve the flexibility, scalability and adaptation capabilities required to support the high-demanding and diverse industrial environment.