Ericsson is bringing private 5G to a large Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) plant in the UK
An analyst told Fierce that the 5G network will largely replace wired links in the factory
JLR said that the network will allow it to use more AI and robotics on the factory floor
Ericsson is bringing another automaker — this time Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) in the U.K. — into the 5G private network digital industrialization world to replace much of the cabling currently installed at the factory.
Fujitsu is installing the Ericsson 5G gear at the JLR plant in Solihull in the West Midlands. The car manufacturer said that the private 5G upgrade will help to supplant and replace the complex, legacy systems that are in place at the plant with low latency 5G.
“We're currently deploying our private 5G network across our product line in Solihull,” said Stephen Mason, advanced digital technologies manager for global industrial operations at Jaguar Land Rover during the Ericsson event last week. “We're seeing [the private 5G network] as the sort of foundational connectivity layer to get to those next steps of the digital transformation that we're working towards,” he added.
Mason said that the initial aim of the deployment is to increase operational efficiency at the plant. JLR is planning to use the 5G network as the basis to power artificial intelligence (AI) robotics and more as the project progresses.
From cabling to robotics
“From what we heard from the automaker, the primary drivers for the private 5G deployment were the cost and complexity of wired Ethernet links (which had previously left sensors and data within the plant's five-story paint shop unconnected), as well as a host of issues associated with Wi-Fi, including limitations on the number of connected devices, weak signal penetration in a metal-heavy environment, and unstable handovers when moving between access points along the production line,” noted SNS Telecom & IT’s 5G research director Asad Khan in an email to Fierce.
"Like most operator-independent private 5G networks in the U.K., JLR's network at the Solihull plant operates in Band n77 (3.8-4.2 GHz) spectrum, designated for shared access licenses,” Khan added.
The analyst noted that JLR is “moving in line with other automakers.” Other automakers currently tracked in the SNS private 5G database include BMW, Changan Automobile, FAW, Ford, GM (General Motors), Great Wall Motor, Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Paccar, Renault, Stellantis, Tesla, Toyota and Volkswagen (including sub-brands Audi, Porsche and Škoda Auto), the analyst said.
Ericsson is the third largest private network provider after Huawei and Nokia, according to Dell'Oro Group. Ericsson has been bigging up its private 5G chops in the run-up to Mobile World Congress.