By James Blackman
The Global Certification Forum (GCF) and the 5G Alliance for Connected Industries and Automation (5G-ACIA) have signed a cooperation agreement to jointly investigate industrial 5G certification needs. The pair said they will share information on industrial IoT use cases and related requirements for testing and certification of 5G products, they said. The collaboration reflects the urgency and progress of the cellular market, certified historically by the GCF, in the industrial space, represented in 3GPP circles by 5G-ACIA, as 5G starts to come of age.
As well, the two groups said they will evaluate applicable testing and certification for 5G-based industrial IoT products. A statement said: “Both parties are also interested in ensuring interoperable devices, networks, and services to enable the high-quality, reliable, and secure wireless communications required for industrial use cases in automation, factories [and so on], worldwide.”
GCF restated its mission to test, certify, and connect cellular products, as part of an official three-step commercialisation scheme, which is increasingly crossing over with industrial IoT equipment, as managed by the OT crowd. “GCF gives confidence to network operators and industrial users to connect GCF certified products to networks and services,” it said. 5G-ACIA did the same, declaring its mission to ensure the best possible applicability of 5G technology for connected industries, in particular the manufacturing and process industries.
Chief executive and general manager at Global Certification Forum, Lars Nielsen said: “GCF… continues to evolve to meet the needs of new stakeholders and, as part of this, has already started to include work items relating to industrial use cases. Now, cooperating closely with 5G-ACIA, GCF aims to accelerate this activity to enable connected industries and automation companies to benefit from the same advantages as ICT companies when undertaking 5G deployments.”
General chair at 5G-ACIA, Andreas Mueller said: “Over the past four years, the 5G-ACIA has successfully influenced the creation of industrial 5G standards in 3GPP. The foundation for the success of industrial standardization has been the flourishing collaboration between OT and ICT companies. An appropriate certification framework is the next important step to prepare Industrial 5G for the market. Therefore, we appreciate the collaboration with the Global Certification Forum to work together on the needs of 5G ACIA members.”
