Industry 4.0: Brazil’s WEG testing private 5G network

Brazilian industrial equipment manufacturer WEG is testing the application of a private standalone (pure) 5G network to connect equipment and machinery in one of its domestic plants.

The project is being led by WEG’s IoT solutions subsidiary V2COM and conducted by telecom equipment supplier Nokia and Brazilian ICT R&D firm CPQD. 

It is expected to last 7-12 months, according to Nokia and CPQD.

The implementation is starting at WEG's plant in Jaraguá do Sul, Santa Catarina state, and the results will be used to contribute to telecom regulator Anatel's studies on the regulation of private 5G networks for business applications.

The plant will operate as a laboratory, in which a private 5G network will be tested simultaneously with a conventional network. Practical and advanced cases of Industry 4.0 will be developed to verify potential productivity gains.

Two spectrum bands will be used in the pilot: a low-frequency band below 6GHz and an ultra-high band, also known as millimeter wave band, at 27GHz, Nokia said. Anatel granted temporary spectrum permits for the tests.

Nokia is providing its Digital Automation Cloud (DAC) platform, comprising network equipment, a cloud-based operation monitoring system and industrial connectors that facilitate standard and protocol-specific connectivity for the industrial segment, the company said.

The project with WEG is the latest example of the use of Nokia's 5G private networks “to leverage Industry 4.0 in Brazil as a leading supplier and technological partner,” Marcelo Entreconti, Nokia head of enterprise for Latin America, said in a statement.

Nokia reports that it has around 220 large corporate customers worldwide, of which more than 30 have adopted 5G. In Latin America, the company has 20 industrial private network projects in development, as regional CEO Osvaldo Di Campli told BNamericas recently.

CPQD, in turn, will provide consultancy services, performance analysis and assess the economic viability of the project.

“The goal is to evaluate different connectivity solutions for use in Industry 4.0. This includes benchmarking between public and private 5G networks and comparing these solutions with other connectivity technologies, both wired and wireless, such as Wi-Fi and fiber optics," said Gustavo Correa Lima, leader of wireless communications platforms at CPQD, in a separate statement.

Nokia and CPQD are also partners in an openRAN development project.

INDUSTRY 4.0

The starting point for this project was a technical cooperation agreement signed in November between WEG, Anatel and the Brazilian agency for industrial development (ABDI), which has a focus on testing private 5G networks in an industry 4.0 context.

“The project of the 5G pilot plant at WEG will provide the possibility not only of supporting official studies of the use of technology in Brazil, but will also accelerate the development and testing of WEG/V2COM products and solutions for our customers,” said V2Com director, Guilherme Spina.

WEG manufactures equipment for the oil & gas, mining & metals, infrastructure, electric power, naval and agribusiness verticals, among others. More recently, the company doubled down on industry 4.0 with the creation of the subsidiary WEG Digital Solutions. 

With industrial operations in 12 countries and commercial presence in more than 135 nations, WEG reports having over 30,000 employees around the world. Clients include miners Vale, BHP and Rio Tinto, oil companies Petrobras and Repsol and power firms Neoenergia, Cemig and Chesf, among others.

WEG posted net sales of 17.4bn reais (US$3.16bn) in 2020, up 30.9% compared with 2019, with 56% of those revenues coming from markets other than Brazil. 

Expenditures on research, development and innovation activities, which include the industry 4.0 initiatives, amounted to 469mn reais, representing 2.7% of net operating revenue in 2020. 

The company plans to invest 1bn reais this year.

PRIVATE SPECTRUM

Anatel expects to hold a 5G spectrum tender by June, but there are no plans to include in the tender design blocks specifically aimed to corporates and industries. 

Despite demand from certain industrial sectors for directly buying spectrum licenses, the regulator is still considering the best way to allow that. For the moment, only mobile operators can bid for spectrum.