5G public network integration for a real-life PROFINET application

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has introduced technical features for Non-Public Networks (NPN), allowing highly flexible and dedicated 5G deployments for Industry 4.0 applications. This paper presents insights into the early adoption of a 5G Public Network Integration Non-Public Network (PNI-NPN) for industrial automation applications with observed network performance. Our contributions are threefold: (i) we present network design concepts to overcome the challenges of industrial use-cases and mobile network limitations, (ii) we propose network architecture over 5G Non-Standalone architecture (NSA), and (iii) we perform validation measurements with PROFINET and PROFIsafe communication. Our results - at a real industrial 5G setting - indicate that the proposed architecture is very promising for future 5G industrial deployments.