Smart Manufacturing and Tactile Internet Based on 5G in Industry 4.0: Challenges, Applications and New Trends

Abstract

For many applications deployed in manufacturing networks, communication latency has been a significant barrier. Despite the constant development of improved communication protocols and standards during Industry 4.0, the latency problem persists, lowering quality of services (QoS) and quality of experience (QoE). Tactile internet (TI), with its high availability, security, and ultra-low latency, will add a new dimension to human-machine interaction (HMI) by enabling haptic and tactile sensations. The tactile internet (TI) is a cutting-edge technology that uses 5G and beyond (B5G) communications to enable real-time interaction of haptic data over the internet between tactile ends. This emerging TI technology is regarded as the next evolutionary step for the Internet of Things (IoT) and is expected to bring about massive changes towards Society 5.0 and to address complex issues in current society. To that end, the 5G mobile communication systems will support the TI at the wireless edge. As a result, TI can be used as a backbone for delay mitigation in conjunction with 5G networks, allowing for ultra-reliable low latency applications like Smart Manufacturing, virtual reality, and augmented reality. Consequently, the purpose of this paper is to present the current state of 5G and TI, as well as the challenges and future trends for 5G networks beyond 2021, as well as a conceptual framework for integrating 5G and TI into existing industrial case studies, with a focus on the design aspects and layers of TI, such as the master, network, and slave layers. Finally, the key publications focused on the key enabling technologies of TI are summarized and the beyond 5G era towards Society 5.0 based on cyber-physical systems is discussed.