Vodafone Portugal teamed up with Ericsson to pioneer standalone (SA) 5G use cases across industrial settings which included the deployment of a private 5G network at a cement plant.
The two companies joined forces to build and deploy a SA 5G private network for cement manufacturer Cimpor in Alhandra, Portugal. They stated the deployment marks the first SA 5G private network in the country.
As part of its digitalisation efforts, Cimpor is using the network to improve its operational efficiency and enable automation technologies across its production process.
Use cases include machine health monitoring using IoT sensors, indoor drones for safety inspections and smart glasses for a handsfree control system using AI-powered voice recognition.
The network also includes the use of HD wireless cameras throughout the facility to monitor operations and proactively detect equipment failures. In addition, the network allows Cimpor to create a digital twin of its facilities.
Ericsson stated Cimpor can start on a small scale and expand the network’s capabilities as needed.
The network is using Ericsson’s RAN and multi-operator core network offerings for the project. Those elements enable Vodafone and Cimpor to share the radio network infrastructure while ensuring optimised radio resources and network performance for its industrial use cases.
Over the coming months, two similar systems will be installed at several Cimpor plant locations.
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