About 5G-Encode

About the 5G-ENCODE Project
Project Completed Mar 2022

The 5G-ENCODE Project, is a £9 Million collaborative project aiming to develop clear business cases and value propositions for 5G applications in manufacturing industry. The project is partially funded by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport of the UK Government as part of their 5G Testbeds and Trials Programme. The project is one of the UK Government’s biggest investment in 5G for manufacturing to date. 

The key objective of the 5G-ENCODE project is to demonstrate the value of 5G on industrial use cases within the composites manufacturing industry. It will also validate the premise that using private 5G networks in conjunction with new business models can deliver better efficiency, productivity, and a range of new services and opportunities that would help the UK lead the development of advanced manufacturing applications. 

The project will play a key role in ensuring that the UK industry make the most of the 5G technology and ultimately remains a global leader in the development of complex composites structures using robust digital engineering capabilities. 

The project will showcase how 5G features such as neutral hosting and network slicing can be applied to transform a private 5G network into a dynamically reconfigurable network able to support a wide range of applications (URLL/eMBB/MMTC) including industrial applications of Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality (AR/VR), asset tracking of time sensitive materials and automated industrial control though IoT monitoring and big data analytics. Such a dynamic network would enable new business models and creation of bespoke virtual networks tailored to specific applications or use cases.

 The state-of-the-art testbed will be deployed across three sites centred around the National Composites Centre (NCC) in the South West of England. In support of the WECA  (West of England Combined Authority) industrial strategy, the NCC plans to keep the testbed operational as an open access facility for experimentation and development of new products and services for the composites industry after the completion of the 5G-ENCODE project. 

The location and nature of NCC’s business would ensure the creation of an industrial 5G ecosystem involving multiple industry sectors and SMEs. 

The project consortium brings together a Tier 1 operator (Telefonica), leading industrial players (e.g. Siemens, Toshiba, Solvey), disruptive technology SMEs covering all aspects of network design, deployment and applications (Zeetta Networks, Mativision, Plataine), a world-leading 5G network research group (High Performance Networks Group in the University of Bristol) and the NCC representing the high value manufacturing industry

Key project information


Motivation: Addressing Industry Requirements

The 5G-ENCODE project is addressing the expressed requirements of the manufacturing industry: 

1 - Lack of demonstrable cost-efficiency and return on investment.
2 - Concerns around compatibility and interoperability of mobile networks with existing industrial systems. 
3 - Need for security - control over the security of connectivity and data, as well as the connectivity itself, to assess the quality of service, especially to external stakeholders without expertise in their sector.
4 - Current lack of understanding of how 5G differs from other connectivity solutions 
5 - Current cultural barriers to working digital and IT tech sectors.

Use Cases

The 5G-ENCODE project will deliver a private 5G testbed within the National Composites Centre (NCC) and demonstrate new business models (neutral hosting) and technologies (network slicing and splicing) and their value proposition to three key digital engineering capabilities for composite manufacturing: 

• Application of AR/VR to support design, training and advanced Human– Machine interfacing to enhance quality of manual layup of composites

• Condition monitoring and tracking of time sensitive assets i.e. composite materials to enhance shop floor operational efficiency and compliance

• Wireless real time in process monitoring inside harsh process environment such as ovens as a stepping stone to full machine autonomy.


Why a private 5G network at the NCC? 

NCC reflects a plethora of manufacturing developments and programmes and addresses the concerns of industry in a demonstrable way, establishing a 5G testbed for industry to allow engagement, interrogation and piloting with minimal risk to the members’ own production facilities. 

How the 5G-ENCODE Project will deliver? 

The 5G-ENCODE project will be delivered in 3 work packages: 
Work package 1:

Programme Management This work package led by Zeetta Networks covers the development and control of an integrated project plan, managing the risk register and Design Brief financial tracking of the project budget. The key value assessment and KPIs and dissemination events will be also coordinated and delivered under this work package. Annual reports and quarterly showcase events are key deliverables in this Work package.
Work package 2:

5G Network Design, Commission and Testing This work package led by Zeetta Networks will design, commission, test and continuous optimisation of the private LTE and 5G networks. This work package will be delivered in collaboration with partners Toshiba, Telefonica and the University of Bristol. Any specific infrastructure, additional to those provided by the partners, will be part of a tendering process to relevant suppliers. 
Work package 3:

Industrial Use Cases This work package will be led by the NCC and will focus on developing the industrial use cases with consortium members as demonstrators to prove value of the 5G network. All software procurement's, data creation for the use cases, and operator training of relevant systems will be conducted within this Work package. The requirements of this Work package will be delivered via 4 sub Work packages: 

Sub-work Packages

• AR/VR application demonstration using materials and resources from NCC and Mativision 
• Asset tracking and Monitoring demonstrations using materials and resources provided by Plataine, Siemens, NCC and Solvay
• Multi-sensory in-process Monitoring and Analytics using materials and resources provided by Siemens and NCC
• Placeholder for additional use cases 
Our SMART Objectives 

The 5G-ENCODE project will be delivered around the following SMART objectives: 
Specific:

Design, build and commission a testbed to operate at the NCC. The project will demonstrate three use cases within a typical factory environment and a business case for the use of 5G infrastructure to improve manufacturing efficiency and productivity. 
Measurable:

The testbed will provide KPIs to demonstrate the network capability. The use cases will test the benefits of 5G and compare them to existing 4G or other technologies.
Achievable:

The project will be performed in two phases to test and demonstrate the outputs that are relevant and beneficial to manufacturing industry. Scope changes will be address at the end of the first phase to accommodate for unknowns in the creation of the testbed and technology advancements in the industry. 
Realistic:

The partners have relevant expertise in 5G networking and proven track record (also in earlier DCMS projects) of delivering largescale projects on time, to cost and expected quality. 
Timed:

Phase1 will see the installation and deployment of the 5G network at NCC premises and interconnecting it with the private 5G network in BMS. It also includes demonstration of the identified use cases on current state infrastructure to provide a baseline for comparison. In Phase2, use cases will be reviewed, adjusted as required, and trialled over the 5G infrastructure. 
The testbed will enable NCC to foster and lead a 5G ecosystem and manufacturing R&D in the South-West of England and build new 5G business cases for composites manufacturing. The project would be a catalyst to SMEs who would be able to work alongside NCC to accelerate their product development road-map and enter new markets. The 5G-ENCODE project will lead to further investment by the local government, WECA, who are keen to improve competitiveness and productivity of manufacturing companies based in the region

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