10173132Intelligent Traffic Steering and Network Slicing in 5G for Manufacturing (ITSNS-5G)ClosedFast Start ResponseInnovate UK5G has emerged as a transformative wireless technology for sectors requiring highly reliable, low-latency, and high-throughput communications---such as manufacturing, aerospace, defence, rail, and energy. Its capabilities, including ultra-low latency, high-bandwidth deterministic performance, and high device density, make it well suited for **mission-critical applications** and real-time control. However, 5G still presents limitations, particularly in managing traffic with varying criticality levels. Industrial environments typically feature heterogeneous networks comprising subsystems with distinct service requirements---ranging from non-critical data collection to ultra-reliable low-latency communication for time-sensitive operations. These subsystems often share infrastructure, making it essential to enforce traffic prioritisation and resource allocation policies to meet differentiated QoS and SLA demands. For example, applications such as high-speed closed-loop process control, machine vision, safety barriers, building monitoring sensors, handheld tablets, and CAD workstations all have varying and often conflicting requirements for priority, latency, and bandwidth. The finite nature of network capacity---constrained by radio spectrum, baseband processing, and radio unit (RU) performance---necessitates intelligent, **real-time optimisation** of how resources are **shared across concurrent** industrial use cases. Without such management, these demands can lead to contention, degraded performance, or even service interruptions for critical operations. This project proposes a dynamic network slicing solution that allocates 5G capacity in real time based on the criticality and behaviour of connected endpoints. The system will create and manage slices on demand, leveraging AI/ML models to analyse traffic patterns, usage profiles, and operational schedules. This enables context-aware prioritisation and spawning of **time-critical routing profiles**, aligning network resources with real-time needs. While commercial 5G solutions exist, they are typically derived from public mobile architectures and retrofitted for private networks. This limits adaptability to industrial requirements and results in high integration and licensing costs. Moreover, the current ecosystem lacks fit-for-purpose user equipment (UE) that supports manufacturing and **operational technology** (OT) interfaces (e.g., PROFINET, EtherCAT) with the low-latency, high-throughput, and jitter-free performance demanded by factory automation. To address these gaps, the project will integrate purpose-built, high-performance industrial UEs, open architecture-based radio units (O-RUs), and an open 5G core. This **end-to-end architecture** will enable domain-specific enhancements and support development of a **cost-effective** alternative supplier ecosystem **tailored** to **industrial** use. The solution will be developed and validated using the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre's (AMRC) 5G Factory of the Future testbed. The testbed will provide a high-fidelity environment to emulate critical process scenarios, assess traffic shaping mechanisms, and validate QoS adherence across diverse industrial device profiles.