2020 the 2nd World Symposium on Artificial Intelligence

5G MEC Gateway System Design and Application in Industrial Communication

Ziwei Jia, Dongdong Li, Weimin Zhang Lingli Pang

School of Mechanical Engineering Wireless Standards Department
Tongji University Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
Shanghai, China Shanghai, China
e-mail: [email protected], [email protected], e-mail: [email protected]
[email protected]

Abstract—In industrial production, mass data transmission monitoring, and industrial monitoring [5] [6]. He et al. [7]
and processing are required with an increase in production proposed a WSN gateway based on ZigBee and GPRS. In
data, which causes large-scale and complicated wiring in the this case, the ZigBee module could reach a maximum
manufacturing industry. However, it is difficult to achieve transmission rate of 250 Kb/s, but the GPRS chip was slower,
improved performance through traditional wireless at 171.2 kb/s. Due to the bottleneck of the GPRS rate, the
communication technologies. 5G, a leading communication authors had to create an external buffer for non-real-time
technology, with its Ultra-Reliable Low Latency communication. Galkin [8] designed a system based on
Communication (uRLLC) combined with Multi-access Edge ZigBee and BLE for remote monitoring in real-time.
Computing (MEC), provides huge potential for the service
However, it was difficult to satisfy sensors big data
with requirements for higher bandwidth, lower latency, and
more computation. The Local Area Network type (LAN-type)
transmission with higher frequency. These wireless
Service supported by the 5G system reduces the net distance, technologies focus on energy efficiency for the acquisition of
which further decreases latency and provides data security. small volumes of data rather than big data transmission in
Based on this, in this paper, a 5G MEC gateway system is industrial production, but this is exactly the needs and
proposed to realize local wireless communication in a factory. superiority of the 5G network in the industrial field [9].
The gateway system includes an intranet Address Resolution 5G networks, as the next generation communication
Mechanism, which is designed to resolve User Equipment IP technology, can provide users with fast speeds of up to 1
addresses, a MEC server, which acts as a switch for packets Gbps downlink and 500 Mbps uplink. Concurrent connection
broadcasting, and network tunnels, which are established for thousands of devices is also required in [10] with the
between gateways to transmit data in the 5G LAN. In addition, target for 15 Tbps/km2 and overall 250,000 users per square
the implemented testbed includes Raspberry Pi, which acts as kilometer. Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication
the gateway, and the OpenVPN server, which runs in the MEC. (uRLLC) with massive machine type communications are
Finally, two cases are shown to transfer Profinet and OPC UA also expected to be provided by future 5G networks in full
data with this system. 5G standardization completed after 2025 [11] [12]. The
cellular system can be well integrated into industrial
Keywords-Industrial Gateway; 5G MEC; 5G LAN; Tunnel communications, and its proprietary band can avoid
interference from 2.4GHz or 5GHz public frequency bands
I. INTRODUCTION used by Wifi, Zigbee and so on.
Various bus technologies were initially used to Most IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) are designed on
interconnect devices in industrial communication. Bus a cloud-based central server system, which is susceptible to
technologies can meet the requirements of high-speed and the Internet environment. Nuratch et al. [13] designed a
low-latency, but the heterogeneity of a bus network can gateway system to transfer RS485 data to the cloud through
result in extremely high maintenance costs and poor Wifi in real-time. However, the latency between the gateway
compatibility between devices. Industrial Ethernet has and the cloud depended upon the network quality, and any
become one of the most popular forms of technology congestion would cause data delays. LAN-type Service
because of its unified interface, low cost, high requirements have been detailed in 5G [10]. A 5G system
communication rate, multitude of software and extensive can offer private communication using IP for User
hardware support, which brings opportunities for integration Equipment (UE) in the same Virtual Network (VN) group.
with cellular networks such as LTE and 5G into industrial Private communication would be supported in a shared
production. Radio Access Network (RAN) or over a wide area mobile
Today, billions of devices are connected by wireless network. These features make it possible for time-critical
communication technology. The most commonly used operations in industrial wireless communication.
wireless communication technologies are RFID [1], Zigbee Edge Computing has been supported by 3GPP to
[2], LoRa [3], and BLE [4]. These wireless technologies are "achieve an efficient service delivery through the reduced
widely used in WSN (Wireless Sensor Network), and their end-to-end latency and load on the transport network" in 5G
applications include environmental monitoring, medical care [14]. MEC (Multi-access Edge Computing) can provide

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cloud-computing capabilities within the RAN in close between PSA UPFs via N19, and local traffic can be
proximity to users (Fig. 1) [15]. With third-party applications switched by a single UPF for LAN communication [15].
deployed in the edge cloud, users can enjoy ultra-low latency
and high-bandwidth network experiences. The MEC used in
5G provides in-depth optimization for M2M (Machine to
Machine) communication and robust protection for data
security.

Figure 2. 5G Architecture

B. System Architecture
Figure 1. 5G MEC Architecture The 5G MEC gateway system can be divided into three
functions: 1) An Intranet address resolution mechanism (in-
In this regard, this paper aims to realize LAN ARM) in the gateway (GW), 2) Packets broadcasting
communication through the 5G network in a factory. In function in the server deployed at the MEC and, 3) a
terms of the structure of this paper, it is as follows. Section II Network Tunnel between gateways (GWs). Each GW will
includes a brief introduction of 5G MEC and LAN-type get a UE IP address (GW-IP) when accessing the network.
Service. In addition, Section II proposes a 5G MEC gateway Since the IP address is assigned randomly, GWs cannot find
system to realize Industrial Ethernet communication in 5G each other without knowing the peer GW-IP. To solve this
LAN. Section III introduces the implementation of the problem, in-ARM is designed for address resolution and
gateway system, and the plug-and-play function is also detailed in Section C. In this system, some packets must be
added into the gateway. Finally, two industrial cases are broadcast to others. Thus, a third-party VPN (Virtual Private
presented in Section IV to demonstrate the design. Network) server is established to broadcast the packets, the
II. SYSTEM DESIGN function of which is detailed in Section D. After this process,
each GW will get the GW-IP of the target GW.
A. 5G MEC and LAN-type Service Since there are a number of protocols and data formats
used by different suppliers, it is not feasible to design
There are three parts in 5G architecture, 1) Access different transmission mechanisms for all protocols.
infrastructure, 2) Forwarding infrastructure, and 3) Control Therefore, GWs identify whole frames from hosts and
infrastructure [16]. Different from the eNodeB (Evolved transfer them through the tunnel, regardless of the protocol
Node B) used in LTE architecture, Distributed Unit (DU)
used in the frame. All transmission through the tunnel
and Central Unit (CU) were designed for 5G RAN (see Fig.
depends on the 5G LAN-type Service.
2) to achieve the collaboration of base stations and
interoperability among various access technologies [10]. The C. Intranet Address Resolution Mechanism
CU, UPF (User Plane Function), and local server can be Reverse Address Translation Protocol (RARP), an old
deployed together in the MEC with the Network Function protocol, allows a LAN device to request an IP from the
Virtualization technology [14]. Software-Defined Network server's ARP table or cache through the MAC [17].
technology promotes the separation of the control plane and Referring to the RARP in this system, we designed the in-
user plane, and control functions are decoupled from
ARM for GW-IP resolution. The MAC address is the unique
network switches such as DU, CU, UPF, and so on, which
identifier of the network devices, depending on which the
only focus on data forwarding.
GW can obtain the target GW-IP. In RARP, one device
In the Control Plane, the Access and Mobility
broadcasts request packets with its own MAC in the packets
Management Function (AMF) controls the access
authentication and authorization of UEs. The Network and receives the corresponding IP address from the response
Exposure Function (NEF) allows an external party to packet [17]. In in-ARM, one GW broadcasts request packets
provision 5G LAN group information and traffic flow by with the target host's MAC in it and get the corresponding
affecting the Policy Control Function (PCF). The Session GW-IP from the response packet sent by the target GW. As
Management Function (SMF) manages the UE IP address shown in Fig. 3, every GW connects to a host, which may be
and 5G VN group. Under the control of the SMF and PCF, a PC, robot, or other devices. The in-ARM can be divided
traffic can be forwarded to/from the Edge Cloud via N6. into five stages:
Traffic for 5G VN group communication is forwarded

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 Figure 3. Intranet Address Resolution Mechanism

1) Preparing: Each GW connects to a host with the

D. Packet Broadcasting
cable, and actively learns the host's MAC address when the
power is on. Each GW maintains a mapping table to record A server runs in the MEC and acts as a local area
network switch, but is only used for broadcasting specific
the relationship between the host's MAC and GW's GW-IP.
packets such as the ARP Request packets. To broadcast
2) When the GW receives the host's data frame, it'll packets to all GWs, a VPN-server is installed on the MEC
analyze the destination MAC (Dst-Host-MAC) of the frame, server. Each GW connects to the server via a VPN-client
and search the mapping table for the target GW-IP. program and gets a virtual IP (VPN-IP) assigned by the
3) If there is no record referring to the Dst-Host-MAC, server. The server maintains a cache to record the VPN-IPs
the GW will send request packets (Requests) to the server, and sends packets to each VPN-IP in turn.
and the server then broadcasts the packets to all GWs. To avoid congestion or broadcast storms in the VPN,
4) All GWs compare the Dst-Host-MAC with their own GWs are divided into different VLANs depending on a pre-
host's MAC, and the qualified GW then unicasts the defined label (Fig. 5). In this process, the server connects
response packet (Responses) to the requesting GW. The with all GWs and maintains a cache to record the VPN-IPs
other GWs ignore the request, and the host automatically and the labels. The packets only broadcast to GWs in the
drops incorrect frames by their network cards. same VLAN.
5) After receiving a response, the GW records the E. Network Tunnel
relationship between the Dst-Host-MAC and GW-IP in the
All traffic between hosts concentrates on the cellular
mapping table. Table I shows an example of a mapping
network between the GWs (Fig. 4), so a stable channel must
table after all hosts have been recorded. be established quickly after in-ARM, such as a network
TABLE I. MAPPING TABLE tunnel. Network tunnel technology is used to transport
another network protocol without changing the content of its
GW-IP Dst-Host-MAC Host protocol. In this system, we used the UDP as the load
protocol to pack the host's frame into a UDP segment. The
10.x.x.1 MAC_NO_1 Robot
UDP header is only 8 bytes, and no connection is needed
10.x.x.2 MAC_NO_2 User between two parties, which can avoid redundancy and
conflicts caused by the host's protocol.
10.x.x.3 MAC_NO_3 Machine
In the GW, as shown in Fig. 4, the transmission is
…. … … divided into four stages, which are complementary to the in-
ARM:

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 1) Preparing: Each GW connects to a host with the cable, directly via an ethernet cable, and Gbps ethernet can meet
and actively learns the host's MAC address when the power big data transmission requirements. Two onboard USB3.0
is on. Each GW maintains a mapping table to record the ports can connect to the external device. One of the great
relationship between the host's MAC and the GW's GW-IP. things about the Raspberry Pi is that the officially supported
2) The GW identifies the frame of the host through the Raspbian OS (Operating System) has rich driving support for
raw socket, analyzes the destination MAC (Dst-Host-MAC) external devices, such as cellular NICs (Network Interface
of the frame, and then searches the mapping table for target Cards) from different manufacturers.
GW-IP.
3) If the GW finds the GW-IP referring to Dst-Host- B. OpenVPN Server
MAC, it will establish a tunnel between each (if no tunnel Fig. 5 shows the information of the server, the OpenVPN
was built before) and encapsulate the entire frame into the based on Ubuntu 18.04 runs on the server, and OpenSSL is
tunnel. used to ensure data security. All data between the GW and
4) After receiving data from the tunnel, the target GW server are transmitted through the VPN tunnel (tun0
sends the frame to the host. interface).
Four RaspberryPis were implemented as GWs to connect
to the server; each GW is pre-defined a label and then sent to
the server. The table in Fig. 5 shows the status of the GWs.
Different VLANs are divided depending on the label, and
packets are broadcast to all GWs in the same VLAN.

Figure 4. Network Tunnel

III. SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION

With the support of telco, data can be transmitted by the
5G network among LAN. A static IP address was bound to
the edge server and with which the GWs can connect to the
server.
A. Hardware
In this system, we used Raspberry Pi 4 as an embedded
computer for the GW. The Raspberry Pi contains an onboard
Gigabit Ethernet interface, which can connect to the host Figure 5. Server Information and Address Cache

Figure 6. Gateway Start Process

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 and platform [19]. The underlying protocol is TCP/IP, which
C. Plug and Play is suitable for IP networks.
At present, most industrial equipment is still connected Fig. 8 shows the integration of the OPC UA and 5G,
by cables. “Plug and play” is designed to deploy the GW which is implemented in the Advanced Manufacturing
quickly and conveniently. The start process of the GW is Technology Center (AMTC) at Tongji University in China.
shown in Fig. 6. Insert the cable into the GW without any The PLC collects sensor data and sends it to the client with
configuration, and then the tunnel would be established the built-in OPC server. With the GW connecting to the PLC
automatically. Since industrial equipment is often powered and the client, the system can realize the real-time
on for a long time and wireless communication is susceptible monitoring of remote sensors.
to electromagnetic interference from metal equipment, it is
necessary to consider the stability of the tunnel between
GWs. Periodically pings to the target GW to maintain the
activity of the RAN and CN (Core Network), and be ready to
reconnect to the server and the target GW at any time when
interrupted. The keep-alive mechanism in OpenVPN allows
indefinite reconnections when disconnected, which provides
a stable connection between the GW and server.
IV. APPLICATION IN INDUSTRY

A. Remote PLC
Siemens distributed Input/Output (IO) supports the main
PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) to connect the IO
module through the network cable to collect the signal of
remote sensors [18]. The main PLC controls the program,
and the PROFINET protocol is used for data transmission.
As the PROFINET protocol is based on the ethernet, the link
between PLC and IOs can be directly replaced by the GW.
As shown in Fig. 7, as a host, the PLC controller is Figure 8. OPC UA with 5G Gateway
connected to the GW through an ethernet cable. The PC can
directly access the PLC through the GW for remote program
download, maintenance, and debugging. V. CONCLUSION
A 5G MEC gateway system has been proposed in this
paper, which is operated on the Raspberry Pi and edge server.
The 5G module of this system can be directly integrated into
the gateway by the USB port, with which the gateway can
meet the requirements of big data and critical information
transmission. However, as a minicomputer, the Raspberry Pi
is not suitable for industrial products. Barton et al. [20]
proposed a smart controller using a hypervisor to allow for
the integration of soft real-time and best-effort applications,
which are suitable for the gateway designed. The real-time
operating system can be used for tunnel transmission of
high-real-time industrial data in the 5G LAN. The in-ARM
function runs on the best-effort system for the uncertainty
network. Next, these functions will be developed for
industrial products, and more industrial applications will be
explored for 5G.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Authors are supported by the National Key R&D
Program of China (Grant No.2017YFE0101400), and also
Figure 7. Remote PLC with 5G Gateway appreciate Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. for its support.

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