Nokia unveils 'Future X for industries' strategy and architecture to catalyze productivity and economic growth in the Industry 4.0 era - Seite 2

Future X for industries

Emerging Industry 4.0 applications will require seamlessly interconnected systems that can sense, analyze, optimize, and control key attributes and actions across a broad range of assets including machinery, tools and devices. Nokia's Future X for industries architecture provides a framework for open, connected systems for each major industry that can accelerate the digitization and automation of these physical assets, with pinpoint precision and augmented intelligence, no matter where they are located.

To accomplish this, networks must be able to connect everything simultaneously, with guaranteed quality of service, even as the number, diversity and distribution of assets grows. For companies to analyze information about the state of those assets and optimize their operations, networks must have the flexibility to connect industry applications to compute resources in a way that meets stringent latency, capacity, reliability and security requirements. They must be able to dynamically adapt to transport massively varying amounts of data between a multitude of devices, sensors, machines and platforms to garner and apply deeper insights that ultimately support precise execution, maximize productivity and improve safety.

Marcus Weldon, President, Nokia Bell Labs, said: "Industry is driven by a constant quest for leading profitability, which in a dynamic marketplace requires maximum productivity. It is now possible for those in both the digital and physical economies to accelerate their digital transformations and realize unprecedented productivity gains. The Future X for industries architecture is designed to describe the essential foundation of this Industry 4.0 revolution, much as the Future X network vision we published in 2015 is serving as a blueprint for service provider network evolution."

The Future X for industries architecture incorporates distinct technology layers designed to meet key industrial networking requirements, including:

• The Business Applications layer, which encompasses the specific applications for each industry segment, including key areas such as predictive maintenance, workforce efficiency and safety, and asset optimization
• The Digital Value Platforms layer that supports industrial automation, cognitive analytics and digital operations, and enabling network and device platforms
• The Multi-cloud layer that delivers proximity and elasticity of compute to ensure that strict performance requirements of business-critical applications are met using the most appropriate cloud models (from local clouds to edge and hybrid clouds)
• The High-performance Networking layer that offers dedicated deep, ultra-reliable connectivity (both wired and wireless) to link everything - workforce, devices, machines and tools, clouds, partners and customers flexibly and seamlessly

These layers are coupled with a 'defense in depth' cyber-security approach that encompasses both business processes and technology-based interventions to protect data and infrastructure end-to-end, with the network as a key detection and mediation layer.