LG Uplus to develop smart factory platform for SMEs
LG Uplus, South Korea’s third largest mobile operator, is developing a smart factory platform for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to monitor and analyze machine tool operations remotely.
The telco is collaborating with Japanese automation company Fanuc for the project, which involves developing cloud-based services using artificial intelligence tools under a subscription model to help reduce SMEs’ initial investment costs.
According to Jeon Yeong-seo, head of LG Uplus’ corporate service development lab, predictive maintenance of various CNC equipment, including lathes and milling machines, can reduce pain points for machine tool customers on the factory floor.
LG uplus in October 2022 unveiled a range of AI services as part of a long-term strategy to transform the telco into a “digital platform service provider”.
Vodafone opens UK MEC Lab
Vodafone has opened its Edge Innovation Lab in Salford, UK, in collaboration with IT infrastructure services provider Kyndryl and Amazon Web Services (AWS). This will demonstrate multi-access edge computing (MEC) technology, as well as mixed reality (MR) and visual inspection services.
Vodafone claims the Edge Innovation Lab is the first of its kind in the UK and hopes it will incubate emerging MEC-related apps and services for the surrounding Greater Manchester area.
“Software developers and innovators in the Greater Manchester region will have access to these technologies in the earliest stages of development. This head start will create a global center of excellence for real-time mobile applications in the region, supporting the growth of digitally led businesses and industries in the area, as well as in the rest of the UK,” said Vodafone.
Nokia and Orange cooperate in microwave backhaul
Nokia is helping French telco Orange upgrade its microwave backhaul network in an extension of an existing collaborative arrangement.
This follows a recent joint trial between the two, combining Nokia’s latest high-power E-Band microwave with legacy microwave frequency products, enabling a high-capacity link over 3.6 kilometers.
The trial demonstrated use of microwave carrier aggregation techniques, achieving a throughput of 20Gbps over that distance. This combined the carriers from two microwave radios operating in the 18 GHz band with two E-Band millimeter wave radios at 80 GHz, using a single dual-band (18+80 GHz) antenna.