The initial priority focus areas of the 5G lab at IBM’s Industry Solution Lab will be asset monitoring and optimisation, field worker productivity and safety, and visual inspection
IBM partners with Verizon to create 5G Industry 4.0 testbed in Texas. (Credit: Bjoertvedt/Wikimedia Commons)
IBM and communications services provider Verizon are joining forces to create a testbed in Texas for developing and testing innovative, 5G-enabled use cases for Industry 4.0 applications.
The testbed environment will be provided at IBM’s Industry Solution Lab in Coppell, revealed IBM communications sector global GM and managing director Steve Canepa.
The new 5G lab will enable enterprise customers to develop and test how Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband can be paired with hybrid cloud, edge, and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies for delivering a new class of intelligent applications and next gen use cases.
The combination will be tested in the applications of robotics, manufacturing process automation, visual quality inspection, guided vehicles, data analytics, and others.
Currently, Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband is being deployed in some of the cities in the US.
Enterprises can get a hands-on experience at the lab as they explore ways to make use of the new 5G capabilities, which include decreased latency, increased bandwidth, network slicing and edge.
IBM said that the 5G lab will demonstrate the power of streamlining solutions for a new era of hybrid cloud that taps the growing relationship between connectivity and compute for creating new value.
The 5G testbed will give a pre-commercial, independent 5G and multi-access edge computing (MEC) environment from Verizon along with the required technical resources and expertise from IBM for enterprise clients to test and optimise products.
Canepa wrote in a blog post: “IBM is dedicated to knowledge sharing and co-creation as we help develop new use cases with our telco clients that leverage the IBM Cloud for Telecommunications and our large and growing partner ecosystem.
“Our approach is founded on the commitment to open hybrid cloud, industry standard interoperability and zero trust security that a 5G and edge future requires.”
Initially, the priority focus areas of the lab will be asset monitoring and optimisation, field worker productivity and safety, and visual inspection.
The announcement of the 5G lab follows last month’s selection by Verizon of IBM and Red Hat to deploy its 5G network as an open hybrid cloud platform.