Domestic telecom equipment maker HFCL announced a partnership with Microsoft to roll out private 5G solutions for enterprises, as businesses look to the next generation technology to accelerate digital transformation. With the rapid rollout of 5G in India, enterprises are looking to next-generation technology, including the promise of Industry 4.0, to accelerate their digital transformation, according to HFCL.
“HFCL has collaborated with Microsoft to develop converged private 5G solutions that leverage new-age technologies such as IoT (Internet of Things), cloud, edge computing, AI (Artificial Intelligence), and analytics to transform industry verticals such as manufacturing, retail and warehouse, mining, education, defence, railways, and smart cities,” the company said. HFCL is deploying one such private 5G-enabled Industry 4.0 solution as a pilot programme at its optical fibre manufacturing plant in Hyderabad, using Microsoft Azure public MEC (multi-access edge compute) and HFCL 5G Indoor Small Cell.
HFCL’s 5G small cells enable real-time fibre defect detection along the fibre production line by utilising video analytics and image processing. Microsoft Azure public MEC analyses this video data in real-time to identify any defects and generates insights for root cause analysis and preventive care by integrating Azure compute and edge-optimized Azure services with the mobile operator’s public 5G network connectivity. HFCL is improving the operational efficiency and manufacturing agility of its fibre manufacturing plant with this AI-enabled, cloud-connected, low-latency private 5G solution.
“We are very pleased with our collaboration with Microsoft in implementing Industry 4.0 solution in our own factory as a pilot programme, using Microsoft Azure public MEC,” said HFCL’s Managing Director.
According to Nahata, the best practises and lessons learned will serve as a playbook for deploying private 5G solutions for manufacturing and other industry verticals embarking on a similar digital transformation journey.