This year, the 1.4 million square meter Deutsche Messe exhibition site in Hanover, Germany will become 5G-ready. Deutsche Messe, which organizes international capital goods trade shows, has obtained a frequency allocation in the 3.7-3.8 GHz range from the Bundesnetzagentur (Federal Network Agency) and will set up one of the largest 5G zones in Europe, spanning 30 halls and buildings as well as the entire open-air ground.

Siemens is playing a very specific role in this achievement. As one of the key exhibitors at the HANNOVER MESSE, Siemens is setting up a private 5G campus network with a focus on industrial use in one of the exhibition halls in Hanover. The network can be used by exhibitors during trade shows and, outside of trade show times, can be used by companies for tests and field trials.

“In the exhibition hall, innovative solutions for industrial networks are presented using this 5G network infrastructure. One particular feature of the Siemens infrastructure is that it will remain in the exhibition hall permanently and will be handed over to Deutsche Messe for commercial use. This means that other customers can also use the Siemens technology as a test environment for their products,” explained Dr. Jochen Köckler, Chairman of the Board at Deutsche Messe AG.

The exhibition site will therefore become a test area and a showcase for the use of 5G in industry. The option of operating these private 5G networks will enable companies to adapt them specifically to their requirements in terms of performance, reliability, and security. In Germany, companies also benefit from the fact that they can use private 5G spectrum exclusively at their sites.

“New network technologies have always been an important driver for innovation. The same is true for 5G. Through the use of private 5G networks, for example at production sites, companies can make full use of the advantages of this key technology. This paves the way for future-oriented applications – such as mobile robots in manufacturing, autonomous vehicles in logistics or augmented reality applications for service engineers. At the same time, the situation in particular in Germany – with the private spectrum in the 3.7 – 3.8 and 26 GHz band – and in Europe offers the opportunity to play a leading role in the use of this future technology,” notes Cedrik Neike, Member of the Board of Siemens AG and CEO Digital Industries.

Siemens has already taken initial strides towards a private industrial 5G network in its Automotive Test Center in Nuremberg. Siemens is also currently creating its own private 5G infrastructures in its plants in Amberg and Karlsruhe. In these systems, Siemens is relying exclusively on its own independently developed products and solutions. Siemens is now installing a private 5G network on the exhibition site in order to highlight the advantages of this technology and to make it available to industrial users.

Using locally available private frequency ranges, companies can set up private 5G networks for enabling connectivity in defined areas – which can considerably increase flexibility in production and logistics. This includes for example the operation of driverless transport systems in the form of AGVs (Automated Guided Vehicles), which can be used in the highly flexible production of automobiles or in intralogistics. Thanks to fast data transmission via 5G, all components in production can respond to changes almost in real time. When combined with future technologies such as edge and cloud computing, 5G networks facilitate the flexible analysis of large data volumes, which makes them a driver for digital transformation in industry.

Deutsche Messe AG