China Mobile Tianjin and Huawei completed the commercial deployment of 5G 8T distributed Massive MIMO technology in the cold rolling workshops of New Tianjin Steel Group, marking the first time that the technology was adopted in steel production workshops. Tests on Huawei's EasyMacro pole sites revealed a cell uplink throughput of up to 1 Gbps, with stable latency of 20 ms at 99.99%.
Inspired by the fresh wave of digitalization among businesses throughout China, New Tianjin Steel Group sets its sights on building a leading 5G smart factory to increase efficiency and improve safety in loading, unloading, hoisting, and other production processes. Thanks to the presence of 5G technologies, data related to the production equipment and environment is collected systematically and onsite videos are rendered in high definition to ensure accurate remote control, making it possible to implement unmanned operations for bridge cranes and other machinery.
In New Tianjin Steel Group, cold rolling workshops are the common application for the technology. The workshops include 18 ground cameras and four bridge cranes, and each bridge crane comes equipped with four high-definition cameras and a remote PLC unit, which means that the 5G networks must guarantee a high uplink throughput and a low latency to ensure reliable data transmission. The bridge cranes travel a distance of 300 m in the workshop, posing enormous challenges with regard to both the stability and consistency of latency-critical remote-control services.
Huawei's 8T distributed Massive MIMO is uniquely positioned to overcome these challenges, as it provides 5G networks with access to lighting-fast transmissions and huge uplink throughput, while avoiding latency jitters during the long-distance movement of connected devices. This superb 'high uplink and low latency' performance lays the foundation for New Tianjin Steel Group's bridge crane operations as well as in a number of other manufacturing processes.
China Mobile Tianjin is committed to providing a premium experience by pursuing innovative solutions. The company will continue to collaborate with Huawei, with the goal of facilitating digitalization across industry via competitive 5GtoB networks.
Eric Sun, Vice President of Huawei's 5G Product Line, emphasized the significance of this latest project: "5G distributed Massive MIMO fulfills diverse deployment requirements," he said. "Its application in New Tianjin Steel Group demonstrates that Massive MIMO can ensure high uplink and low latency for industrial services across 5G macro, pole, and indoor products. Huawei will work with customers and partners to make 5G accessible to all manufacturers and facilitate the adoption of smart, digital solutions."
Source: https://www.huawei.com/en/news/2022/8/massivemimo-steelindustry-2022