In the era of digital economy, the production model, operation model and business model of enterprises are all undergoing changes. Among the multiple intertwined forces driving industrial digital transformation, the constantly evolving 5G new generation of information and communication technology, with its "natural" characteristics such as large bandwidth, low latency, high reliability, and wide coverage, has provided a powerful foundation for the digitalization, networking, and development of the industrial field. Intelligent transformation provides powerful infrastructure and becomes a powerful engine to alleviate the pain points of traditional manufacturing.
At the just-concluded China International Industry Expo, Schneider Electric, China Academy of Information and Communications Technology and China United Network Communications Group Co., Ltd. jointly released the "5G+PLC Deep Integration Solution" white paper (hereinafter referred to as the "White Paper"), explaining 5G+PLC The application in the discrete manufacturing industry involves 5G network planning, deployment, operation and maintenance, and performance requirements in the entire life cycle from production line design to operation and maintenance. It is also supplemented by detailed application explanations to demonstrate 5G's role in the manufacturing industry "line by area". The profound changes brought about by the production model will promote future changes in the industrial field.
In the preface written for the white paper, Yu Xiaohui, president of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, pointed out that the integration of PLC as the core controller of industrial automation and 5G technology has brought about changes in function, form and structure, enabling smarter and more intelligent Reliable and safer industrial control has attracted great attention from all parties in industry, academia and research, and its practice is gradually expanding from the application of peripheral auxiliary links in production such as logistics control to the application in core links such as production control.
However, to truly unleash the value of 5G technology and make it a driving force for the high-quality development of real industries, there is an urgent need to integrate application innovation with the real economy, to deeply integrate with operational technology (OT) in the industrial field, and to be consistent with the industrial automation system. Fusion.
5G native capabilities add momentum to changes in the industrial control field
With the increasing demand for industrial flexible production, the upgrading of the industrial field itself is gradually accelerating. Discrete manufacturing, as a typical representative of the manufacturing industry, has withstood the baptism of industrial digitalization and continues to move towards "customized flexible production lines" and "OT/OT/ "Tight integration of IT networks" and "new integrated industrial automation system": First of all, segmented processes have brought the possibility of customized production according to different needs in the production process, and the demand for industrial flexible production has further increased; secondly, lean production has made Discrete manufacturing companies need to use the integrated network of OT and IT to realize the circulation and sharing of on-site production factor data to enterprise management side data; finally, the complex traditional networking structure is developing towards the three-tier device-edge-cloud architecture in the Industry 4.0 era. The collaborative deployment of MES, SCADA, and ERP on edge computing nodes or industrial clouds has become an industry trend.
Evolution of Industrial Automation System Architecture from Industry 3.0 to Industry 4.0 Under these trends, the field of industrial control is undergoing a revolutionary change. The new generation network architecture requires network communication between the device and edge computing nodes to provide large bandwidth and low cost. Latency and latency determinism are the native capabilities of 5G: in terms of flexible production, the low latency, high reliability, and strong security features of the 5G network can support the wireless requirements of OT network communications in flexible production scenarios. In terms of flat network architecture, 5G enables all types of industrial production equipment to conduct flat communications. At the same time, the 5G network naturally provides the capability of one network for the entire domain. Combined with the Layer 2 access capabilities of 5G LAN characteristics and the flexible allocation of network resources by 5G network slicing, it perfectly fits the development trend of flat integration of OT networks and IT networks in discrete manufacturing enterprises. .
The deep integration of 5G+PLC breaks the "acclimatization" of 5G landing industry
Industrial control is the core link of industrial production. The deep integration of 5G+PLC will bring innovation to the manufacturing production model and production form. With the continuous evolution of 5G technology, the introduction of R16 key features, and the reliable low-latency capabilities of 5G, it has gradually become possible for 5G to enable the PLC control field, that is, to support PLC southbound communications. It is reported that at industrial manufacturing sites, since the industrial equipment closest to the bottom is the industrial control system software and hardware represented by PLC, it usually appears as an important bottom-level control component to achieve specific operations and process control of industrial equipment. Since it involves the precise cooperation of many devices, the requirements for delay control and error are very high. This has also led to the fact that for a long time, the connection between the control system and the acquisition unit has often been wired, and wireless networks have not been considered. In factory networks, 5G is more widely used in higher-level system layers such as ERP, MES, and SCADA, but rarely enters the more in-depth PLC control field. Although the wired connection provides PLC with stable delay electrical signals, because the factory has many production lines and machines, many PLCs are involved, and every time the production line is adjusted, especially when the flexible manufacturing production line is adjusted, wiring and The workload of program debugging is very large.
Based on this, the white paper starts from the initial analysis and investigation of the industrial production line and ends with full implementation of production. It provides a comprehensive solution for the deeply integrated 5G+PLC industrial production line, covering system architecture, 5G+PLC application scenario classification, Information on multiple levels such as 5G network planning/deployment/operation and maintenance and performance requirements.
At the system architecture level, the white paper divides the typical 5G+PLC system architecture into three levels: on-site access equipment, edge centralized deployment, and upper-layer bearer applications, as shown in the following figure:
5G+PLC factory-level system architecture This architecture inherits the traditional PLC control architecture and is as insensitive to control program writers and equipment manufacturing personnel as possible, reducing the difficulty of its implementation and improving convenience and replicability.
At the scene level, the white paper summarizes 5G+PLC application scenarios into four categories: logic control scenarios, process control scenarios, motion control scenarios and external devices. We know that in daily life, consumers will order mobile phone card packages according to their own needs. Some have higher requirements for traffic, some require more talk time, and some require higher network speeds... Industrial scenarios and Similarly, devices and machines in four different scenarios also have their own communication requirements. For example, video transmission equipment requires larger bandwidth, while control equipment pays more attention to delay stability. Schneider Electric believes that this architecture will make the cloud, edge, and end in the future flatter, and field equipment more intelligent, thereby better utilizing the computing power of the cloud and edge, making the production line more open and cost-effective. Users also have more choices, ultimately allowing the control system to be used on lower-cost control equipment.
According to Wang Zhiqin, deputy director of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, on the one hand, 5G+PLC breaks the relatively closed industrial system of traditional PLC and makes its architecture more open; at the same time, the past PLC has changed from a multi-level thread network to The current three-layer flat architecture. Schneider Electric’s exploration and breakthrough in the 5G+PLC field has played a very critical role in enabling 5G to enter the core control links of industry.
At the operation and maintenance level, in order to meet the network needs of different scenarios, China Unicom not only provides customized network capabilities, but also provides 5 standardized network products to provide fast and efficient network construction capabilities through the "basic network + value-added services" approach. However, in the process of in-depth integration of 5G, a brand-new communication technology and industrial control architecture, various "acclimatization problems" will inevitably occur: one is the inconsistency in the performance standards of CT and OT; the other is the inconsistency between CT and OT; Due to the extremely low latency of direct wired connection of equipment, equipment access based on 5G wireless network will bring losses in production efficiency; thirdly, the instability of the network will bring safety hazards to some mechanical motion equipment, and production safety is The first priority for industrial manufacturing.
These issues will rely on the cooperation of industrial enterprises, communication enterprises and basic telecommunications enterprises to jointly improve mutually compatible methods, design new electrical/mechanical safety architecture, production line design tools and supporting solutions to ensure the stable and reliable operation of industrial 5G private networks. , thereby providing users in the industrial industry with truly valuable private network services.
5G+ industrial Internet applications gradually mature
5G is the key technology driving the development of the Industrial Internet, and the Industrial Internet is the main frontier for large-scale application of 5G. As 5G continues to take root in the industrial field, 5G networks have begun to expand in the direction of deep integration with OT networks at the factory control level to improve the flexibility and transparency of the production process. Through 5G's full coverage in the factory, it will ultimately help the manufacturing industry to improve quality and Reduce costs and increase efficiency. As a global digital transformation expert in the field of energy management and automation, Schneider Electric has done a lot of research and practice on 5G industrial application scenarios based on its rich experience in lean production, green intelligent manufacturing and OT technology to help 5G fully connect Factory construction. It is understood that since 2019, Schneider Electric has deployed 5G networks in its factories in Wuxi and Guangzhou, and conducted a large number of performance and security tests. It has proposed a fully sinking, decentralized deployment of 5GC (5G core network) and unified management by the group. Architecture and operation model. At the same time, Schneider Electric will also begin to implement 5G multi-campus private network solutions in 2022, covering more than two dozen smart factories and logistics centers across the country, achieving unified network standards, rapid application replication, and unified management. In future factory scenarios, Schneider Electric factories can also apply the technology that combines 5G with VDI PAD in quality control, maintenance, remote training and other scenarios, which can significantly reduce hardware and operation and maintenance costs by about 50% and achieve lightweight assets. The goal.
Looking to the future
The new version of 5G standards and new technologies will accelerate the deep integration of IT and OT at the factory control level. At the same time, more and more traditional automation manufacturers are also actively embracing new ICT technologies to jointly solve the problems encountered by industrial enterprises in the process of digital transformation. practical problems. In actual scenarios, the characteristics of 5G technology have been integrated with Schneider Electric’s deep accumulation in the manufacturing field, bringing about great improvements in flexibility, resilience and efficiency. As an active practitioner of 5G industrial applications, Schneider Electric looks forward to sharing its successful experience with more industrial companies, jointly promoting the industrial digitalization process with the industry, and sharing the dividends brought by digital technology.
