An Economic Assessment of the Contributions of 5G into the Railways and Energy Sectors

Abstract

This paper presents an economical assessment of the benefits of introducing 5G technologies into pilot use cases pertaining to the railroad transportation and energy sectors. For each of the pilots, undergone by EFACEC Engenharia e Sistemas and EFACEC Energia, respectively, under the scope of the H2020 5Growth project, evaluates the expenditure and benefits expected from introducing 5G capabilities over their on-going operations. This evaluation is expressed regarding the Portugal case, and are also scaled to assess the European-wide case. The main objective of the study summarized in this paper is to understand if solutions proposed by the H2020 5Growth project, and 5G as a whole, are also advantageous from an economic point of view. The results of the techno-economic analysis reported in this paper show, on a European scale, millions of euros saved by the different stakeholders involved in the deployment of 5G solutions.

An Empirical Assessment of the Contribution of 5G in Vertical Industries: A Case for the Transportation Sector

“…Thus interconnecting these sensors allows the detection of passing trains and sends the information to the LX controller. A detailed assessment of the contributions of 5G into the transportation sector is provided in [4], which presents a business analysis considering the European market.…”

“…These underlying characteristics have manifested in its ability to provide enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), massive Machine Type Communications (mMTC), and Ultra-Reliable Low-latency communications (URLLC) services, distinctively through the existence of network slices [3]. For industrial sectors' stakeholders already deploying some form of connectivity via mobile networks, such ability allowed the improvement of existing communication scenarios and paved the way for developing new ones (i.e., unable to be fulfilled by previous generations) [4]. However, it also presented itself as a beacon of opportunity to, for the first time, fully integrate mobile communication capabilities into other sectors' operational processes.…”

“…Entities such as the 5G Alliance for Connected Industries and Automation (5G-ACIA 1 ) have brought together organizations from both operational technologies and information and communication technologies (ICT), intending to smooth out the application of 5G in industrial deployments. This objective is also pursued by other entities that address specific operational sectors, such as the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA 2 ), the Alliance of Industrial Internet (AII 3 ), and the Industry IoT Consortium (IIC 4 ). Additionally, research projects such as H2020 5G-enabled Growth in Vertical Industries (5GROWTH 5 ) aimed to pursue the technical and business validation of 5G technologies, creating the necessary infrastructure and technical facilities to support the required integration engineering of verticals for 5G up taking.…”