# Performance of 5G Trials for Industrial Automation
## 4 Evaluation Setup
### 5G Configuration Options  
With the ongoing global deployment of commercial 5G networks, the focus of the deployed devices and infrastructure is currently on the public consumer markets for mobile broadband applications and fixed-wireless access. Those 5G systems also are currently the basis for deployments addressing vertical use cases and are based on products that are primarily targeted toward mobile broadband (MBB) traffic with limited customization for industrial use cases. In our measurements, we used different commercially available devices, all of which are based on the modem chipsets that have been primarily designed for the MBB market. The performance results with the default network settings indicate that such devices suit several industrial applications, as described in the subsequent section. This configuration is referred to as 5G-MBB, and the default configuration used for the evaluations is shown in Section 5. Obviously, the achievable performance is dependent on traffic characteristics, such as the message size as well as the service requirements, e.g., the required reliability level for data communication.  
We have experimented with different RAN configuration parameters in the trial networks related to scheduling and link robustness and observed that parameter tuning could allow significantly reduced latency to be achieved. In particular, latency reduction for uplink transmission is highly desirable, especially when considering that most of the industrial use cases have uplink-focused traffic profiles. RAN configurations, resulting in reduced uplink latency, are referred to as 5G-MBB, which have an adapted configuration in the later description of the results. We also observed that the achievable performance varies substantially when using different 5G devices, even when they are based on the same 5G modem chipset.  
Redundant data transmission with FRER creates multiple independent traffic flows for the same data application. In cases where the flows traverse independent paths, this can be used to protect against equipment failure, which is beyond the scope of this article. When FRER is applied over a 5G network, another benefit can be identified: FRER may be used to create multiple flows, even over a single path, providing improved reliability performance. When different wireless devices are locations with similar radio propagation and that are transmitting the same data over the same network with the same network load and that are located nearby, then the average performance perceived by those devices is mostly similar. However, in occasional cases, one of the devices may face wireless transmission errors caused by, e.g., a blockage; such transmission errors are then recovered by retransmissions at the cost of an increase in transmission latency. Moreover, the scheduling algorithm may lead to slightly different latencies on redundant paths. In such cases, the redundant transmission of data flows over separate data paths and 5G devices can provide performance benefits, as the better-performing data path determines the end-to-end performance. Related measurements are presented in Section 5.  
Finally, we empirically study the achievable performance of the pre-commercial standard compliant URLLC testbed. This testbed has been designed and optimized for URLLC and includes features such as scheduling enhancements, robust control and data channels, traffic prioritization schemes, and latency-optimized TDD patterns, some of which have been explicitly specified to support time-critical communication use cases, such as those in industrial automation. The measurements determined for the URLLC testbed are referred to as 5G-URLLC in the figures in Section 5.