POSCO DX has completed registration as an ‘Ieum 5G’ company, and is embarking on widespread digital transformation (DX) through the advancement of smart factories at steel mills.  

‘Ieum 5G’ means that general companies, rather than the three existing leading telecom carriers, build their own 5G networks and provide services in specific areas such as factories and large buildings with government approval. On the 11th, POSCO DX received government approval for frequency allocation and common telecommunications business registration in the 4.7GHz band at Gwangyang Steel Works. 

Based on the ‘Ieum 5G’ infrastructure, POSCO DX plans to further advance the smart factories currently being built and operated by expanding technological applications for steel mills, including autonomous transportation, industrial robot control, and digital twin. 

In association with related organizations, POSCO DX is applying 'Ieum 5G' to the autonomous locomotive being developed at POSCO Holdings' N.EX.T Hub research institute. Firstly, ‘Ieum 5G’ is being used for autonomous and remote operations of charter trains that transport molten iron within the Gwangyang Steel Works. POSCO DX collects various real-time data generated from autonomous locomotives through 'Ieum 5G', and transmits them to the server in real time, and plans to transmit UHD-level high-definition video to the railway control center and use it for control for safe locomotive operation, such as remote monitoring and emergency braking. for safe locomotive operation such as remote monitoring and emergency braking. To this end, we plan to complete the construction of 'Ieum 5G' communication infrastructure, and launch a pilot service through linkage with the control system currently in operation at steel mills by October. 

‘Ieum 5G’ enables stable, high-capacity communication with the advantages of fast response speed and hyper-connectivity. With this in mind, POSCO DX has decided to expand its application to areas such as secondary battery production sites including steel mills, unmanned cranes used at construction sites, industrial robot control, autonomous and remote driving of on-premise transportation railways/vehicles, and real-time monitoring of the operating environment. 

In building the infrastructure, Samsung Electronics' dedicated 5G-based solution called Compact Core, and a 4.7GHz band radio base station has been supplied, along with the use of terminals (CPE) developed by domestic small and medium-sized businesses. Samsung Electronics' dedicated Ieum 5G-based solution is geared to large-volume data uploading for corporate use, and features support for greater upload bandwidth compared to general equipment.

A POSCO DX official explained, “By deploying 'Ieum 5G' at steel mills, we aspire to further expand DX at production sites by applying it mainly to sites that require high-capacity communication and real-time response speed, such as autonomous driving of intra-railway and vehicle transportation, unmanned cranes, and industrial robot control.”