Wireless technologies in industrial laboratory

Siemens has opened a new test lab­o­ra­to­ry for indus­tri­al con­nec­tiv­i­ty tech­nolo­gies at its Erlan­gen site. Embed­ded in the Siemens Tech­nol­o­gy Cen­ter on the Erlan­gen cam­pus, the Indus­tri­al Con­nec­tiv­i­ty Lab offers 300 square meters of space for exten­sive test­ing of any con­nec­tiv­i­ty solu­tion in indus­tri­al envi­ron­ments: Indus­tri­al WLAN, 5G, real-time local­iza­tion sys­tems (RTLS), and radio fre­quen­cy iden­ti­fi­ca­tion (RFID).

“The increas­ing con­ver­gence of OT and IT in indus­tri­al plants is cre­at­ing a great demand for cus­tom com­mu­ni­ca­tion solu­tions,” says Axel Lorenz, CEO of Process Automa­tion at Siemens. “Many users find it dif­fi­cult to assess the ben­e­fits and frame­work con­di­tions of wire­less tech­nolo­gies in their own oper­a­tions. The Indus­tri­al Con­nec­tiv­i­ty Lab offers our cus­tomers the great advan­tage of being able to com­bine dif­fer­ent con­nec­tiv­i­ty tech­nolo­gies and test them with us in indus­tri­al con­di­tions.” In addi­tion, the lab also serves as a train­ing and edu­ca­tion envi­ron­ment and is used for Siemens’ inter­nal tech­nol­o­gy tests.

For tests of 5G appli­ca­tions, Siemens has a pri­vate 5G license that cov­ers the entire Siemens Tech­nol­o­gy Cen­ter Erlan­gen, and the lab is equipped with a com­plete pri­vate 5G infra­struc­ture devel­oped by Siemens. The test envi­ron­ment is also sup­plied with indus­tri­al WLAN. A vari­ety of sce­nar­ios for local­iza­tion solu­tions can also be test­ed with high accu­ra­cy via the RTLS sys­tem installed on-site. In addi­tion, indus­tri­al iden­ti­fi­ca­tion solu­tions using RFID are avail­able for users in the lab. Final­ly, remote con­trol and remote main­te­nance sce­nar­ios can also be stud­ied on-site via a DSL connection.

“At the Indus­tri­al Con­nec­tiv­i­ty Lab, Siemens experts advise our cus­tomers on all estab­lished wire­less tech­nolo­gies – and test them in real indus­tri­al con­di­tions,” Lorenz says. “This is how our cus­tomers get the desired per­for­mance and also save time and costs before instal­la­tion in their own facilities.”