DIH - The Role of Connectivity in Industrial Automation

This conference is organised in the frame of Luxembourg digital innovation hub (DIH) to raise awareness on digital technologies to support industrial and manufacturing companies’ development.

The topics of this conference’s talk are focused on connectivity and networking in industrial contexts with a keynote from an expert in wireless communications (Jim Lansford – Farafir), the presentation of state of research on the topic (Ion Turcanu – LIST), and an example of application of the technology from a company (Karlo Skokna – Waagner Biro).

Programme

15h00 - Registration & welcome coffee

15h30 - Welcome and introduction (LIST)

15h35 - Keynote: Reliable, Low-Latency Wireless Communication – Overview and Challenges (Speaker Jim Lansford - Farafir)

Meeting requirements for applications that require high reliability and/or low latency has always been challenging for wireless communication technology. Given the nature of channel impairments (multipath, fading, path loss, etc), congestion, and interference, it is almost impossible to assure reliability, minimize latency, and manage jitter. It is especially difficult when using unlicensed (license exempt) spectrum, since congestion and interference are difficult, if not impossible, to manage; if high throughput is needed, that further complicates the problem.
This talk will address some areas in wireless communication where standards bodies are trying to address these issues and make an attempt to at least establish minimum performance bounds in wireless standards.
There are three topics that this talk will focus on:
1) PC5 Sidelink in 3GPP (Rel 14) to send latency critical messages between vehicles and infrastructure (LTE-V2X),
2) Ultra-High Reliability (UHR) in 802.11, which will become Wi-Fi 8, and
3) Ultra-Wideband (UWB) as being developed in IEEE 802.15.4ab.
Q&A (15’)

16h20 - Time Sensitive Networking – From Theory to Practice (Speaker Ion Turcanu LIST)

Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) is expected to have a significant impact on industrial automation by providing deterministic communication on top of the well-known Ethernet technology. Due to its properties, there is a growing interest in academia and industry to bring TSN to the wireless domain.
This talk will provide an overview of the main TSN protocols and the ongoing standardization efforts by 3GPP and IEEE. The talk will also demonstrate the capabilities of TSN in a lab environment.
Q&A (10’)

16h50 - Wireless Safe Data Transmission Challenges in a Theatre Environment (Speaker Karlo Skokna - Waagner Biro)

Creative and innovative artistic ideas always pushed the limits to make impossible possible. Rapid development of stage machinery over the last 100 years and its imminent digitalization and automation brought new challenges in the today's hot topic area of wireless communication. Theatre stage can range from small in the form of several m2 to very big spanning over several thousand m2 (i.e. 64m x 48m). This enormous size is often not really perceived by general public watching performances from the auditorium. Taking into account that most of today's equipment either is or can be controlled remotely (wireless), managing different stakeholders and frequency ranges can quickly become problematic. General public (> 1000 people) sitting in the auditorium and using their mobile phones does not make that job easier.
The purpose of this presentation is to demonstrate challenges in finding suitable technologies that can fulfil high availability and reliability demands for safe use on a theatre stage. As the famous sentence says: “Show must always go on”.
Q&A (5’)

17h20 - Test Before Invest with the Luxembourg Digital Innovation Hub (Speaker Samuel Renault LIST/DIH)

Created in 2021, the Luxembourg Digital Innovation Hub has been active in the promotion of digitalisation in industrial and manufacturing companies. Since 2023, it has extended its services offerings, and now companies can test digital technologies to before making their investment decisions. We will present the three Test Before Invest services that the DIH operates: raising awareness of Test Before Invest, testing advanced technologies without a specific use case in mind together with other companies to share experience and testing advanced technologies with the aim to identify a specific use case and a development plan for a company.
Q&A (10’)

17h40 - Conclusion words (LIST)

17h45 - Drink and networking cocktail