Towards integration of Industrial Ethernet with 5G mobile networks

In contrast to the predecessors, the fifth generation of mobile networks (5G) will particularly address communication in production systems by providing machine-type communication and matching requirements regarding reliability and latency. However, 3GPP 5G will not be the one and only network technology that can be used to fulfill all the requirements raising from industrial applications at reasonable costs. It is more likely, that it complements other wired and wireless technologies, rather than replacing them. This paper presents different scenarios to combine 5G and Industrial Ethernet to a hybrid topology, it explains the characteristics and possible use cases for these scenarios and it sketches approaches to engineer and configure the hybrid network.