This architecture inherits the traditional PLC control architecture, as far as possible to control program writers and equipment manufacturers without influence, reduce the difficulty of its implementation, improve the convenience and reproducibility.

At the scene level, the white paper summarizes 5G+PLC application scenarios into four categories: logic control scenarios, process control scenarios, motion control scenarios and external devices. We know that in daily life, consumers will order mobile phone card packages according to their own needs, some have higher requirements for traffic, some need more talk time, some need higher Internet speed… Industrial scenarios are similar, and the devices and machines in the four different scenarios also have their own communication requirements, such as video transmission devices that require greater bandwidth, and control devices that pay more attention to delay stability.

Schneider Electric believes that this architecture will make the cloud, edge and end more flat in the future, and the field equipment is more intelligent, so as to make better use of the cloud and edge computing power, so that the production line is more open, the cost is lower, and the user has more choices, and finally the control system can be used in lower cost control equipment.

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In the view of Wang Zhiqin, vice president of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, on the one hand, 5G+PLC has broken the relatively closed industrial system of traditional PLC and made its architecture more open; At the same time, the past PLC from a multi-level thread network, into the current three-layer flat architecture. Schneider Electric’s exploration breakthrough in the field of 5G+PLC has played a very key role in enabling 5G to enter the core control link of industry.

At the operation and maintenance level, in order to meet the network requirements of different scenarios, China Unicom provides five standardized network products in addition to customized network capabilities, and provides fast and efficient network construction capabilities through the “basic network + value-added services” approach.

However, in the process of in-depth integration of 5G, a new communication technology and industrial control architecture, it is inevitable that there will be a variety of “soil resistance” : one is the inconsistency of the performance standards of CT and OT; Second, compared with the extremely low delay of the equipment directly connected by the wire, the equipment access based on the 5G wireless network will bring the loss of production efficiency; Third, the instability of the network will bring security risks to some mechanical motion equipment, and production safety is the first priority of industrial manufacturing.

These issues will depend on the cooperation of industrial enterprises, communication enterprises and basic telecommunications enterprises to jointly improve their compatible ways, design new electrical/mechanical safety architectures, production line design tools and supporting programs, and ensure the stable and reliable operation of industrial 5G private networks, so as to provide real valuable private network services for industrial users.