Nomadic 5G campus network for automation in Agriculture 4.0

Automation in agriculture demands a reliable communication infrastructure, which is often not available in the field. Therefore, this paper presents a nomadic 5G campus network with multiple base stations and a satellite backbone to provide temporary communication in the field. The concept employs an Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) with multiple Next Generation NodeBs (gNBs). The nomadic 5G base station is realized as a moveable tractor front weight and validated in field tests. Moreover, a concept for connecting autonomous ground vehicles (AGV) to the nomadic network and controlling them remotely is presented. The test result shows that a data stream of 20 Mbps can be transmitted over the internet and the network with an end-to-end delay of less than 100 ms.