Industry 4.0 from 5G perspective: Use-cases, requirements, challenges and approaches

In this paper, we describe the Industry 4.0 use-cases that belong to ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC) service category, as seen by the on-going 3GPP standardization. Specifically, our focus is on motion control, factory and process automation, and we present their key characteristic as well as their requirements in terms of latency, jitter, reliability, and availability. We then provide a brief overview of the techniques that 3GPP envisions to be the enablers of ultra-reliable and low-latency services in 5G radio-access network (RAN), which is arguably the critical part of the URLLC end-to-end connectivity. We conclude the paper with a brief discussion.