China Mobile Hubei and Huawei Debut High-Precision Simulation Planning for Fully-connected 5G Factories

China Mobile Hubei and Huawei achieved a new milestone in building fully-connected 5G factories with the successful high-precision simulation and planning solution based on Huawei's 5GtoB Suite, which is one of the i-series solutions of IntelligentRAN. Based on the Wireless Installed Network Solutions (WINS) platform, this solution builds an indoor 3D model with the help of laser point cloud technology for the factory with a precision of over 90% for automatic planning of indoor 5G private networks. China Mobile Hubei introduced this solution for flexible manufacturing in a labor- and cost-effective manner.

The release of the Guidelines for the Construction of 5G Fully-Connected Factories by People’s Republic of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has ushered in a new era of factory construction. As one of China's 5G pioneers, China Mobile Hubei has long sought to develop specific solutions for enterprises. In light of the complex wireless environment, wide range of terminals, and myriad service requirements within fully-connected 5G factories, deterministic network capabilities have proven key to ensure stable business operations. This poses a great challenge when planning dedicated 5G network simulation, especially with regard to accuracy. In response, China Mobile Hubei and Huawei constructed an indoor 3D HD environment model based on the laser point cloud technology, to support smart and streamlined planning of indoor 5G private networks. As a result, what you see is what you get. The solution provides deterministic network capabilities for a wide range of different services and supports a high level of network performance on the diverse terminals of various industries.

With the help of laser point cloud technology, the solution implements high-precision 3D environment modeling and simulation planning. The process includes laser scanning of the factory environment, which produces 3D HD environment models and factory digital simulation. Factory elements and materials are then obtained, including production line devices, shelf materials, vehicles, and AC pipes, to accurately simulate the real wireless propagation environment with centimeter-level precision and material identification accuracy of over 70%.

Figure 1: 3D environment modeling diagram on the WINS platform

Based on HD environment modeling, high-precision ray tracing is used to boost the coverage prediction precision by more than 20%. The solution introduces the Monte Carlo model of user distribution and time-frequency domain to implement multi-user dynamic time sequence data rate simulation and dynamic resource evaluation. The simulation precision of capacity and terminal data rate is above 90%. Network planning is automatically completed based on networking policies. Compared with the CAD map, in scenarios with balanced service distribution, the average level in the planning result increases by 3 dB, and the planning efficiency is improved as well.

Figure 2: Simulation and planning effect on the WINS platform

The project provides a benchmark for 5G flexible manufacturing applications, supporting the smart manufacturing of Midea's fully-connected 5G factory through 3D environment modeling and precise simulation planning. In the future, Huawei will work with China Mobile Hubei to innovate scenario-specific solutions and build high-quality 5GtoB networks for industries applications such as manufacturing, mining, and port, to support their digital and intelligent transformation.

This content is sponsored by Huawei.