BMW Develops Open RAN 5G Testbed

BMW Group has installed an open RAN private 5G network testbed for testing new technologies and training employees at its biggest vehicle production site in Europe. The automobile company wants to bring 5G technology to all its production facilities across the globe, and build its newest 5G testbed at the company’s Dingolfing plant.

The plant based in Dingolfing produces the all-electric BMW iX, with several other models, and has also been a hub for the research of BMW on autonomous and connected logistics for around three years. The 5G network of this facility was already in place before work started on the testbed.

Kai Grunwitz, country managing director of Germany, said BMW wanted the 5G network to observe open RAN alliance specifications in order to support interoperability, and avoiding vendor lock-in. Kai Grunwitz said technology is continuously changing with such speed, and there are many players in the market. He added that, he does not know how the market will look in upcoming 2 to 3 years, and currently it is so dynamic.

BMW Group is not the first NTT private 5G customer to choose an open RAN technology. Kai Grunwitz said that the operator is building an open RAN private 5G network for Fraport, a German airport operator at Frankfurt Airport.

BMW calls the Innovation Hub, a plant within a plant because it is equipped with same robots that were used in real production facility of BMW nearby. The company also said it wanted the new lab to be a part of its training center so the new employees can work with the cutting-edge technology from the beginning.