5G and Industrial Innovation: Endless Potential Ahead

Digitalization today is rapidly reshaping the way business is done, with the integration of digital technology into all aspects of daily processes. Organizations across nearly all industries are enjoying the benefits of digital transformation, which include enabling accelerated efficient workflows, strengthened security, and increased profitability. However, some industries have been slow to adopt the plethora of technology available today, the most noticeable being the manufacturing industry. 

Historically, the manufacturing industry has been slow to adopt disruptive digital solutions. Consequently, according to McKinsey‘s 2020 survey, only 26 percent of global manufacturing companies worldwide claimed they had scaled some or many Industry 4.0 use cases. Currently, most manufacturers are still lagging in adopting emerging technologies associated with Industry 4.0—from additive manufacturing to AI and machine learning.

Today, changing operational requirements are demanding more data-intensive technologies. However, the existing wireless network protocols are not fully suited to supply all the needs of the modern manufacturer. Fortunately, the arrival of 5G and 5G platforms will empower manufacturers and their workers to experience this digital future. 

Manufacturers can benefit from 5G in many ways—faster speeds, greater throughput, and lower latency. The network specifications also promise greater reliability, extended battery life for connected devices, and support for massive device connectivity. Not only will these network characteristics combine to revamp current manufacturing activities, but 5G will also be a catalyst for innovation sparking industry 4.0.

Automated machines, digital twins, and other augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) applications become possible for manufacturers when utilizing 5G. Employment of these applications drive cost savings for the manufacturing industry and help to increase productivity amongst both machines and workers alike.

Per Allied Market Research, “The global industrial 5G market size was valued at $12.47 billion in 2020, and is projected to reach $140.88 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 27.5 percent from 2020 to 2030.” The anticipated growth is unsurprising, as the Manufacturer’s Institute noted that “…91 percent of manufacturers believe that 5G connectivity will be important to the overall future of their business.” For reasons like this, companies in the manufacturing field are increasingly looking for 5G platforms that will help them usher in a new age of industry 4.0.

Veea Inc. is a leader in integrated smart edge connectivity, computing, and security technologies for hybrid edge-cloud managed services. Recently, at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, the company announced [email protected] Smarter Home solution for its STAX-5G CPE, the first-ever 5G-based broadband access CPE, with a global carrier certified 5G modem. This stack module can be purchased together with, or separately as an add-on to, the STAX base unit supporting a highly integrated Tri-band Wi-Fi 6 Mesh Router, IoT connectivity gateway, and distributed computing delivering hybrid edge-cloud managed applications and services. 

“The Smarter Home of the future is no longer limited to managing a few door locks, thermostats, light switches or cameras,” said Allen Salmasi, Chairman and CEO of Veea. “In the near future, besides the typical use cases, our homes will be an extension of the enterprises that we work for, retail stores, local theaters, sports stadium and arenas, concert halls and similar venues with user experiences that require a variety of edge services and capabilities.” 

Salmasi continued, “This is an extremely exciting time in our industry, and network operators who rapidly roll-out 5G-based fixed broadband access and support subscriber’s use cases with one highly integrated and easy to install and manage CPE solution at the edge – in the subscriber’s home – can gain significant market share while accelerating the return on their initial investments with a stand-alone Smarter Home bundle, other application bundles or potentially even bundled with their mobile service offerings providing for even larger CapEx and OpEx savings while substantially improving subscriber retention.”

STAX’s distributed computing, delivered through the whole house Wi-Fi 6 mesh network, supports a virtualized software environment on each STAX mesh node. Each application is securely running in another industry-first lightweight Secure Docker container with service policies. The VeeaHub platform provides convergence of services, applications, and policy, which is essential to delivering a consistent user experience while providing end-to-end management of STAX devices.

This confluence of technological, social and enterprise developments points to 5G-based broadband service delivery. These hardware and software solutions at customer premises are highly secure; and can readily be customized to offer value-added services combined with Zero-Touch Installations (ZTI), advanced networking, and backend APIs for integration with network operators’ BSS/OSS for edge managed services.

Its unique architecture enables an application mesh, a microservice-based mesh, and an edge intelligence mesh over the entire coverage area created by Wi-Fi 6 mesh network. Its hybrid edge-cloud managed networking and computing can facilitate many possibilities, including 5G network slices directly serving application endpoints running in complete isolation on any mesh node.

For example, with this architecture, Smarter Home solutions offered by service providers may include dedicated network slices over 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) service offerings for office applications and services used by remote workers at home. Remote workers can simultaneously, seamlessly, and securely connect to all typical systems at home, including lighting, HVAC, cameras, etc., anywhere in their home over the whole house mesh with multiple data traffic lanes over public network connections for office use cases as well as typical home broadband services.

Veea’s mission is to bring service providers an easy-to-sell, easy to provision, and automated ‘plug and play’ solution for 5G-based broadband access. Veea’s Smart Computing Hub solutions support network-managed applications and services with an intuitive mobile app and web interface for their subscribers. 

“Veea offers a highly modular edge computing and wireless access network solution that provides service providers and enterprises with the flexibility and capabilities they need to address a fast-expanding frontier of heterogeneous computing and network opportunities across the edge,” said Leonard Lee, Managing Director and Founder of neXt Curve. “The STAX platform’s modular design allows developers to design and deploy tailored wireless networks and distributed edge applications supporting innovative solutions in retail, the home, and more.”

Lee further stated, “VeeaHub also offers edge infrastructure managers with cloud-based tools to manage the full lifecycle of edge computing and network services. These are all important features and elements of mobile edge computing that Veea has integrated into an integrated portfolio of hardware, software, and services that can accelerate the realization of novel edge applications in the era of distributed edge intelligence.”

Veea is an excellent example of a company that is leading the way in providing innovative technology for manufacturing companies to quickly and seamlessly adopt digital solutions allowing them to digitally transform the way they do business using 5G connectivity.