When Industry 3.0 came about, commercial businesses benefited greatly, as wired and wireless networks allowed for increased productivity and enhanced connectivity. However, as Industry 4.0 begins to take root, the manufacturing sector will be the one to see the most advantages, allowing industrial facilities to accelerate digital transformation by enabling a vast array of transformative use cases. 

Among all the innovative applications available to manufacturing enterprises nowadays, the most impactful is, without a doubt, 5G and other advanced network technologies. In fact, 91 percent of manufacturers believe 5G connectivity will be essential to the overall future of their business. 

The near-consensus sentiment among factory owners is unsurprising, given that a 5G network, especially when private, can provide manufacturers with abilities such as increased automation, improved worker safety, enhanced security, and even optimized data and network resource use.  

Yet, for every advantageous capability private 5G can offer manufacturers, the one with the most potential for manufacturing enterprises is the introduction of network-aware applications.  

Challenges in Elevating a Factory’s Awareness 

Network-aware applications can take advantage of the programmable nature of the network to dynamically request network resources such as higher quality of service (QoS on demand), deterministic path, and specific latency, which can elevate a private 5G network beyond a mere “dumb” connectivity pipe, turning it into an intelligent asset for manufacturers.  

Unfortunately, given the digitally complex nature of network-aware applications, there are a variety of challenges manufacturers may run into while attempting to design their own. 

For instance, while it’s common for manufacturers to leverage a multi-vendor advanced network system, this can result in network-aware applications failing to work on a hybrid network, as they are often designed for one specific network.  

Furthermore, some manufacturing organizations simply do not possess the technological know-how to adequately build and deploy the applications necessary to fully leverage the functionality and reliability of private 5G networks. This is where Shabodi can play a pivotal role in helping manufacturers truly make the most of their private 5G network-aware applications and reap all the benefits of Industry 4.0.  

Our application enablement platform (AEP) combines the features of network services discovery, services catalog, intelligent orchestration, publication of APIs to developers, and insights, simplifying and accelerating the development, deployment, and management of network-aware IIoT/IoT applications. 

Shabodi’s AEP for Manufacturers 

Shabodi’s AEP can allow manufacturing organizations to create network-aware applications that provide tangible, practical solutions to some of the most common, observable problems that currently plague factory floors amidst the digital revolution.  

For example, as manufacturing enterprises look to implement various autonomous technologies onto their factory floors, they must be prepared to handle the sharp increase in high-volume access requests that these applications require.  

AEP technology can increase the number of access requests scheduled for machines, robots, and other autonomous devices to improve the utilization of the advanced network inside the factory floor. Eventually, this optimizes the time and workforce utilization with high-impact automation and integrates with side links to maximize shop floor activities.  

On top of this, along with autonomous technologies, augmented reality, and virtual reality (AR/VR) applications that are built for immersive remote expert assistance, training, maintenance, and repairs using AR/VR need to prioritize support sessions to get less than 20 ms latency to deliver a comfortable experience for the field technician or the person wearing the AR/VR gear,  

A network-aware AR/VR application built on Shabodi’s AEP can dynamically request a network slice (ultra-low latency and high bandwidth); it needs to render 3D models of the equipment overlayed with the live image feeds, which can be customized to the level of urgency, speed, and latency required for specific remote expert assistance scenarios.  

Overall, as new possibilities are unlocked through the advent of Industry 4.0, manufacturing enterprises must ensure they’re leveraging the myriad of innovative devices efficiently to keep pace with rivals amidst the digital age. Shabodi’s AEP can do all the heavy lifting for factories looking to make the most of their private 5G networks and usher in a new era for dynamically aware network applications.  

To learn more, download our Maximize 5G investment in Manufacturing With Network-Aware Applications whitepaper here.