# An Experimental Framework for 5G Wireless System Integration into Industry 4.0 Applications
## 3 Experimental Framework for 5G Integration
### Industrial Automation Operational Flow
This process is normally not straight forward as the IT integration itself, and the debugging of connectivity and 5G-integrated interface routing schemes, turns typically into a quite time-consuming task. Ideally, at the end of this step, the result is a fully functional 5G-integrated I4.0 application, both in terms of hardware and software, ready to be tested in operational conditions._
* _Performance analysis: the fully functional 5G-integrated industrial application is thoroughly tested. In this step, typically, reliability tests are executed by monitoring the correct operation of the industrial system during a long period of time (could be from several hours to several days). Performance tests are also done, looking at the communication efficiency in terms of, for example, control-loop latency performance. Other parameters such as throughput or time between failures could be monitored, ensuring that the outcome of the testing is well aligned with the methodology defined in [12], guaranteeing that a fair comparison with future results reported by Industry for similar use cases will possible. Further, the industrial production efficiency could be evaluated, by mapping the empirical wireless performance to the operation of the underlying industrial process [13]. Scalability tests could also be performed, in case they are relevant for the targeted use case. Ideally, similar tests should be done over other suitable wireless technologies (i.e., 4G, Wi-Fi), in order to benchmark their performance with the 5G one and estimate the potential gains achieved by operating the application over 5G. * Optimization: this final step deals with the potential enhancements in those areas of the system identified based on the analysis of the outcome of the different performance tests. Depending on the results, optimizations could take place in different domains: at the machinery side, in case it is detected that an optimized performance would be feasible by a slight re-architecture of the industrial control network or by a slight tuning of parameters in the control communication protocols; at the 5G network side, by optimizing the radio interface for the specific targeted application by tuning of 5G configuration parameters; or at the 5G-application integration point, in case it is identified that changes in the integration hardware or software are needed. Once STEP 6 in the applied operational flow is completed for a given application, this should be ready to integrate and deploy with the operational production system within the factory. Then, it is possible to go back to STEP 1 and re-initiate the flow after re-evaluating what the new needs of the factory would be after the successful completion of the previous iteration. The introduction of a wireless link may affect the entire networking ecosystem in a factory (eventually unleashing new opportunities for running wirelessly other applications involved in the same control network infrastructure), and therefore the integration of such other application and their potential conversion to wireless should be considered in the next iteration. This converts our operational flow into a circular loop, and makes the proposed experimental operational framework compatible for direct integration with those digitalization methodologies such as the AAU 360 DMA [6], briefly addressed in Section 1. Our integration methodology is flexible enough to be applied to any application at any level digitalization level. Furthermore, despite the fact that in this paper we illustrate and apply it mainly within a 5G context, our framework is technology-neutral. We believe that multiple wireless technologies will co-exist within the industrial ecosystem, and this makes our integration framework unbiased as compared to, for example, those that specific network providers interested in selling a given technology might suggest.