Siemens opens industrial wireless test laboratory to customers

Siemens has opened a new test laboratory for industrial connectivity technologies at its Erlangen site in Germany. Embedded in the Siemens Technology Center on the Erlangen campus, the Industrial Connectivity Lab offers 300 m² of space for extensive testing of any connectivity solution in industrial environments: industrial WLAN, 5G, real-time localisation systems (RTLS) and radio frequency identification (RFID).

“The increasing convergence of OT and IT in industrial plants is creating an enormous demand for custom communication solutions,” said Axel Lorenz, CEO of Process Automation at Siemens. “Many users find it difficult to assess the benefits and framework conditions of wireless technologies in their own operations. The Industrial Connectivity Lab offers our customers the great advantage of being able to combine different connectivity technologies and test them with us in industrial conditions.”

In addition, the lab also serves as a training and education environment and is used for Siemens’ internal technology tests.

For tests of 5G applications, Siemens has a private 5G licence that covers the entire Siemens Technology Center, and the lab is equipped with a complete private 5G infrastructure developed by Siemens. The test environment is also supplied with industrial WLAN. A variety of scenarios for localisation solutions can also be tested with high accuracy via the RTLS system installed onsite. In addition, industrial identification solutions using RFID are available for users in the lab. Finally, remote control and remote maintenance scenarios can also be studied onsite via a DSL connection.

“At the Industrial Connectivity Lab, Siemens experts advise our customers on all established wireless technologies — and test them in real industrial conditions,” Lorenz said. “This is how our customers get the desired performance and also save time and costs before installation in their own facilities.”

Image: The Industrial Connectivity Lab in Erlangen showing a test use case.