5G+RFID: A Revolutionary Combination of Wireless Communications for Industrial Automation
In the wave of Industry 4.0, the integration of 5G and RFID is reshaping the underlying logic of industrial communication. 5G’s ultra-reliable and low-latency communication (URLLC) and massive connectivity, combined with RFID’s ubiquitous sensing and low-cost characteristics, form a full-stack wireless solution of “sensing-transmission-decision-making”. This combination not only breaks through the physical limitations of traditional wired communication, but also realizes millisecond response and full element digitization in dynamic scenarios, becoming the “nerve + blood vessel” dual channel of intelligent manufacturing.
- Technology integration: breaking through the traditional communication bottleneck
Traditional industrial communication relies on wired network or Wi-Fi, there are complex wiring, poor mobility, insufficient bandwidth, etc. The combination of 5G and RFID realizes a breakthrough through the following characteristics:
5G empowers RFID wide area interconnection :
5G supports millions of device connections per square kilometer, solving the data congestion problem of RFID in dense scenarios;
Through network slicing technology, dedicated channels are allocated for RFID data, with end-to-end latency as low as 10ms.
RFID optimized 5G scene adaptability :
Passive RFID tags do not require power supply, reducing 5G terminal deployment costs;
Batch identification capability (reading thousands of tags in a single pass) makes up for 5G’s shortcomings in efficiency in small packet transmission.
Case: Huawei’s manufacturing park after the deployment of 5G + RFID network, 1,000 units of equipment status data to achieve second-level synchronization, AGV scheduling efficiency increased by 40%.
Core scenarios and value release
- Dynamic production line flexible reconstruction
Technology realization: RFID tags are deployed on workpieces and fixtures, and 5G provides real-time feedback on the location and status to the MES system;
Practical value: an automobile factory production line change time from 6 hours to 30 minutes, support for multi-model mixed line production.
- All-link material tracking
Technology realization: RFID code binding from raw materials to finished products, 5G network to realize cross workshop and cross plant data penetration;
Practical value ：Ningde Times has improved the accuracy of electric core traceability to 99.99% and reduced quality loss by 62% through this program.
- High-precision real-time control
Technology realization: 5G URLLC transmits vibration and temperature data collected by RFID, triggering PLC emergency shutdown;
Practical value: Sany Heavy Industries applied the technology in welding robots and compressed the response time of collision from 500ms to 20ms.
Third, the challenges and countermeasures of scale landing
Cost and power consumption balance:
Solution: The use of “passive RFID + 5G lightweight module”, single node cost reduction of 70%;
Case: Haier adopts localized 5G CPE and recyclable RFID tags, saving 3 million yuan in communication costs per year in a single factory.
Electromagnetic interference problem:
Solution: Dynamic adjustment of 5G frequency band and RFID read/write power through AI to avoid signal conflict;
Data : Siemens tests show that the program reduces the misreading rate from 8% to less than 0.5%.