Volkswagen Tests 5G For Production At Dresden Plant

Volkswagen is taking a further step in the direction of fully networked factories. A local 5G standalone network is now available at its main plant in Wolfsburg that initially covers the main production development centre and the pilot hall. The pilot project will test whether the 5G technology meets the demanding requirements of vehicle production with a view to developing this for industrial series production in the future. A dedicated 5G radio frequency will be used to safeguard secure, delay-free transmission of data. The Transparent Factory in Dresden has also put a so-called "5G island" into operation. Volkswagen undertakes setup and operation of the 5G infrastructure itself in a move designed to build up competitive expertise in using this important technology of the future and ensure data security.

There are already around 5,000 robots at the Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg, as well as many other machines and systems. Secure, delay-free transmission of data will be required in the future to control and monitor these. Latency, i.e. the time it takes for data to be sent through the network, is significantly reduced with 5G networks versus other wireless communication technologies such as WLAN. 5G technology provides extremely short latency times of up to one millisecond, data transmission rates in the gigabit range and considerable reliability even with high utilization. This real-time wireless communication will make many smart factory applications possible for the first time.

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One scenario to be tested in the pilot phase under real-life laboratory conditions in Wolfsburg is the wireless upload of data to manufactured vehicles. With ever higher levels of digitization and fully connected vehicles, the production process requires large amounts of data to be transmitted to the cars. 5G makes it possible to perform this much more quickly and at any time during production.