en.Wedoany.com Reported - Deutsche Telekom and Swedish Ericsson have recently built a dedicated 5G campus network at the Altenwerder Container Terminal operated by Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) in Hamburg, Germany. Covering approximately one square kilometer, the network connects terminal vehicles, sensors, mobile devices, and information systems, providing a wireless communication foundation for automated loading and unloading, equipment monitoring, and real-time logistics dispatching.
The construction was tailored to the actual operational environment of a highly automated container terminal. The port area features a large number of vehicles and equipment, continuous production processes, and concentrated communication loads in some work zones. The new 5G campus network adopts Ericsson's Private 5G solution, ensuring stable communication under high-load conditions and allowing network capacity to be expanded as terminal equipment increases and business operations evolve.
Unlike public mobile communication networks, the CTA terminal has deployed a dedicated network that independently serves the port's production systems. The network coverage matches the terminal's operational area, integrating automated vehicles, on-site sensors, staff mobile devices, and backend IT systems into a single communication environment, reducing connectivity fragmentation caused by different devices relying on wireless LAN or other communication methods.
During terminal operations, vehicle positions, container status, equipment operating parameters, and dispatch instructions require continuous transmission. With the dedicated 5G network in use, relevant data can be exchanged in real time between field devices and backend systems, providing communication conditions for vehicle dispatching, loading and unloading organization, equipment status monitoring, and anomaly handling. The network's low latency and high connection density also lay the groundwork for future additions of automated equipment.
The network has also been established as a testing environment for port digital technologies. HHLA and its partner companies can test new automation equipment, logistics applications, and wireless connectivity solutions under actual terminal operating conditions. By deploying the test environment directly within the operational container terminal, relevant technologies can be validated amid constantly changing vehicle movements, equipment operations, and communication loads, and can be directly integrated into existing production processes after testing.
Michael Albers, IT Project Manager at HHLA, stated that the dedicated 5G campus network provides the terminal with a reliable wireless infrastructure, enabling new applications to be tested and put into operation under real conditions, while also offering an on-site environment for partners to develop and validate port solutions.
This network construction is part of the "PROCON-5G" project and a component of Germany's "Port Digital Test Field" funding program. Supported by the German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport, the program focuses on expanding digital infrastructure at seaports and inland ports, creating a communication environment within port areas for the development, testing, and validation of new technologies. TÜV Rheinland is responsible for the program's project management.
With the deployment of the 5G campus network at the CTA terminal, its communication infrastructure has shifted from connecting dispersed devices to a dedicated network covering the port's production systems. As additional automated vehicles, smart sensing devices, and real-time logistics systems are introduced in the future, the existing 5G network can continue to support expanded access range and communication capacity.
