Design and Implementation of 5G Asset Administration Shells: Bridging Networks and Industry 4.0

Asset Administration Shell (AAS) serves as the digital representation of industrial assets, facilitating the creation and management of Industry 4.0 digital twins. In the context of integrating 5G into the industrial domain, AAS addresses the requirements of industrial applications and operational technology (OT) processes by providing an abstraction layer that enables factory operators to manage networks according to their needs. This seamless horizontal integration of 5G networks into OT processes lays the foundation for a holistic, end-to-end automation framework. Moreover, AAS offers valuable insights from diverse systems that enhance both network and asset management performance. In this paper, we detail the design, development, and implementation of 5G AAS, which encompasses both the 5G network and 5G user equipment components. We also demonstrate the practical application of our approach through the integration of the 5G-Industry Campus Europe and a corresponding use case.