Ultra Low Latency Implementation of Robust Channel Estimation and Equalization for Industrial Wireless Communication Systems In industrial environments, automation companies seek for wireless solutions for their realtime demanding production lines. Complicated wiring, feasibility problems in connecting moving parts and high cost limit the operation of wired communication systems like EtherCAT or POWERLINK. The specified ultra reliable low latency communication channel in 5G networks is planned to support robust wireless connection for guaranteed latency of 1 ms. But up to now, it is not yet clear, whether 5G will provide frequently used industry communication interfaces or not. Additionally, to the authors knowledge, there has no 5G transceiver been built up yet, which is proven to fulfill all industry specific demands. For this reason, other standalone solutions for this tasks are developed. To meet the industry requirements, all hardware must be designed for low latency and low hardware complexity at maximum robustness. This paper addresses channel estimation and equalization hardware architectures for use in such systems.

Demonstrating the Impact of LTE Communication Latency for Industrial Applications This paper assesses the performance of a private LTE wireless network in an industrial automation setup. Our goal is to study the impact of communication latency in a robot arm position control application when the position feedback signal is transmitted via a commercial LTE wireless link. An Ethernet link scenario is considered as our benchmark. We show that even under very specific conditions (no network load, high signal power), the wireless link cannot achieve a satisfactory performance. The proposed demonstration provides a simple visualization of how LTE network latency disturbs the robot behavior, leading to undesired overshoots, oscillations and even stopping its movements. These results demonstrate that even a private LTE network is still incapable of providing the low latency required by industry automation applications, which shall be incorporated in the upcoming 5G wireless systems.