Roadmap to Industry 4.0 adoption in India @ India Mobile Congress 2021

At the ongoing India Mobile Congress 2021, there was a session devoted the roadmap for Industry 4.0 adoption in India.

Ms. Nadine Ellen, Head of Enterprise Business , South East Asia, Oceania and India, Ericsson, talked about exploring the limitless connectivity for smart industries. The era of 5G-powered business is here. Evolving enterprise and industry trends include multiple separate networks for communications. high cost of ownership, data speeds, throughput, and latency, etc. 49% of enterprises have begun digitalization journey. Innovation has shifted for core app to the edge. There is demand for high-speed secure data apps, and convergence of OT-IT, and communications technology.

Full automation is now approaching. Almost 2/3rds of surveyed manufacturers expect 80% automation by 10 years. Cellular connectivity is fundamental for many use cases. One cellular wireless network can serve wide range of use cases. Today, advanced wireless networks are needed, and 5G is high on the list. 5G can help Indian mobile operators increase their revenue by 48%.

Ericsson has a smart factory in Texas, USA. It covers app areas solving business challenges for a variety of reasons. Customer cases of 5G for industries include gas storage and processing, factory 5G, 5G for ports, construction, etc. Industry expectation from 5G are around industry-grade solutions, high level of data security, ease of configuration and maintenance, support for long investment lifecycles, connect and position large amount of devices, including mobile, etc.

Ericsson is a key enabler for digital transformation. 5G for business can unleash limitless connectivity. CSPs in India are now in a strong position to leverage 5G with use cases.

5G and Industry 4.0

Ronen Shpirer, Director 5G Solution Marketing, Fortinet, said the industry verticals are already getting transformed. 5G can be used with Industry 4.0 within a factory or production site. Security has a role to play in enterprise 5G adoption. It is among the leading challenges facing enterprises today. 5G is an enabler for Industry 4.0, with emerging use cases. Some of these are wide-area connectivity for fleet performance, inbound logistics for manufacturing, etc.

The ISA99 Purdue model is the current industrial environment security. Today, there is need for IIoT security. That also leads to some uncertainty within enterprises. There is also a concern regarding security risk for IoT and IIoT devices. Some also don't have enough security resources for IIoT. There are regulatory pressures, such as Cyber security of 5G Networks -- EU Toolbox of risk mitigating measures in Europe, and Secure 5G and beyond Act of 2020 in USA.

For the MNOs, security investment is mandatory. You need to look at the overall 5G service ecosystem. There can be public and private 5G, and B2B2C. You need to secure your 5G infrastructure, deliver service SLA and availability, and deliver security services in 5G slices for public 5G. For private 5G, you can deliver use-case based security. The Fortinet Security Fabric allows us to take care of the MNOs security needs.

Amit Marwah, Head of Marketing & Corporate Affairs, India Market, Nokia, said Industry 4.0 and digitalization can help the industry. Private LTE and 5G are looking at Industry 4.0 networks. The largest uptake has been in mining, logistics, etc. In India, initiatives like Digital India are driving the journey towards Industry 4.0.

We have a target for India. The manufacturing sector should contribute 25 percent for India by 2022. Nokia's Chennai factory has LTE-based Industry 4.0 connectivity. Every machine in the factory has been connected. We have more analytics to build the digital twin for a factory. It is running on a robust 4G network. We have also introduced factory-in-the-container.

There was a video on the capabilities of the Chennai factory. There have been collaborations for Industry 4.0 with CSPs. Nokia is looking to further strengthening the digital infrastructure. Spectrum should also be looked at carefully, for Industry 4.0.