IBM, MI and Samsung – together with the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) – are gearing up to start the 5G smart manufacturing trials in June, focusing on use cases around artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), augmented reality (AR), enhanced video analytics and preventive maintenance.
The collaboration among the three companies was announced last Wednesday, in conjunction of IBM’s new edge computing services for the 5G era that were revealed this week at the Think Digital conference . The news of the tie-up also came a week after Singapore granted two nationwide 5G networks to Singtel and a joint venture between StarHub and M1.
The trials, which will benefit from SG$40 million fund to build the 5G ecosystem, will begin next month at the IBM Industry 4.0 Studio in Changi Business Park, with commercial rollout planned for the end of the year.
IBM will and test Industry 4.0 use cases deploying AI, IoT, edge and augmented reality technologies, with network architecture built on IBM systems using open solutions infrastructure from Red Hat. Samsung will serve as network and mobile solution provider and M1 as telco provider.
Building a 5G network framework
Together, the three companies will establish a 5G network framework and, allowing the solutions and the 5G framework know-how to be rolled out from Singapore and commercialised in other countries.
As industry regulator, will share applications and learnings from the trials with local enterprises and small in the manufacturing industry as well as other participants in the local 5G ecosystem.
IMDA chief executive Tan Kiat How noted that the manufacturing sector is a key one for Singapore, contributing nearly 21% of Singapore’s gross domestic product (GDP) last year.
“For us to sustain our global competitiveness in this space, it’s about leveraging technology to enable new business models and innovation, and this partnership is a step in that direction,” said Mr Tan.
Industry 4.0 transformation for Singapore
The trials aim to develop insights and showcase benefits of 5G in Industry 4.0 It will be an innovation model that allows for development, testing and benchmarking of 5G-enabled solutions that can be applied across various industries.
Both IBM and Samsung will evaluate successful solutions developed during the project for possible use in their operations in a broad range of markets and sectors.
“We want to complement Singapore’s Smart Nation and Digital Economy efforts and empower enterprises and industry players with a robust and versatile 5G launch-pad through this trial.,” said Martin Chee, managing director, IBM Singapore. “This will allow businesses to leverage digital technologies to create next-generation solutions and be responsive to rapidly changing market and 5G adoption in Singapore.”
He added: “With support from IMDA and our strategic partners Samsung and M1, this collaboration will seed Singapore’s 5G capabilities and strengthen its position as a leading industrial innovation hub, and move us closer in fulfilling our Industry 4.0 vision.”
Singapore 5G license holder M1 is keen to deliver use cases to market – particularly in the consumer, government and enterprise sectors – as soon as the ecosystem matures.
“Through this partnership, we hope to strengthen our in-house engineering capabilities in harnessing state-of—the-art 5G standalone (SA) technology for enabling hyper-connectivity, end-to-end network slicing, ultra-low latency, highly reliable and secured communications,” said Denis Seek, chief technical officer, M1.
Commenting on the partnership, KC Choi, executive vice president and global head of B2B business at Samsung Electronics, said: “Singapore has long been a leader in fostering innovation, and this 5G Industry 4.0 program is yet another validation of their technology leadership. By combining Samsung's end-to-end 5G Standalone (SA) network platform -- including phones and devices at the edge, we are witnessing ground breaking new Industry 4.0 capabilities for enterprise clients.”
Apart from providing a strong foundation for Industry IoT and automation, 5G would also reduce the cost of processing by shifting the load from the edge device to centralised systems. This reduces the requirement and cost for edge device thus making the application more cost effective
