5G enters the second half, the difficulty of ToB lies in the "three highs"

More than two years after the licenses were issued, 5G has entered a new stage of development. At a recent meeting, Wen Ku, vice president of the China Communications Standards Association, said, "5G has entered the second half." The core of the competition in the second half of 5G is 5G applications. Wen Ku revealed that in fact, in 2018, before the 5G licenses were issued, relevant departments felt that 5G applications might be the biggest problem.

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In July this year, the MIIT and ten other departments jointly issued the "5G Application "Set Sail" Action Plan (2021-2023)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Action Plan"), which proposed that by 2023, the development level of 5G applications in my country will be significantly improved, and the comprehensive strength will continue to increase. Create a new ecosystem with deep integration of IT (information technology), CT (communication technology), and OT (operation technology), achieve breakthroughs in the depth and breadth of 5G applications in key areas, build dual pillars of technology industry and standard system, further improve basic capabilities such as network, platform, and security, and gradually form a situation where 5G applications "set sail".

Among them, key indicators of 5G applications have been greatly improved, such as the penetration rate of 5G individual users exceeding 40%, and the number of users exceeding 560 million; the proportion of 5G network access traffic exceeds 50%, and the efficiency of 5G network use has been significantly improved; the average annual growth rate of 5G IoT terminal users exceeds 200%. The effectiveness of 5G applications in key areas is prominent. In the field of personal consumption, a number of new businesses, new models, and new formats of "5G+" new consumption should be created, and the sense of gain of users will be significantly improved. In the vertical industry field, the penetration rate of 5G applications in large industrial enterprises exceeds 35%, and 5G applications in the fields of electricity, mining, etc. have been replicated and promoted on a large scale. The scope of 5G+ Internet of Vehicles pilot projects has been further expanded, promoting the digital transformation and upgrading of traditional industries such as agriculture and water conservancy. In the field of social livelihood, a number of 5G+ smart education, 5G+ smart medical care, and 5G+ cultural tourism model projects have been created, and the level of 5G+ smart city construction has been further improved. More than 100 5G application benchmarks have been created for each key industry.

As 5G technology continues to evolve, the desire to deepen and expand 5G applications is growing. However, the difficulty in 5G development is how 5G networks can support vertical applications and how 5G applications can be simply replicated, because "large-scale replication from 1 to N is the basis for large-scale promotion of 5G."

Wen Ku pointed out that the reason why 5G applications are difficult is mainly because of "three highs". First, the cost of 5G network customization is too high. Each enterprise has one demand, and different enterprises have different demands. The application is seriously fragmented, and it is difficult to achieve "from 1 to N", which is basically "from 1 to 1". Second, 5G itself has high requirements for integration with vertical industries. Third, enterprises have high requirements for the network. When enterprises use 5G, unlike individual consumers who only need application terminals, enterprises need to know the situation of the network and realize the organic combination of the network with the enterprise's control system, warehouse management system, transportation system and other information systems.

Wen Ku explained that 5G has changed from a ToC (consumer-oriented) network to a ToB (enterprise-oriented) network, and this change is mainly reflected in four areas. The first is the core network. Operators require intensive and efficient development, and the core of the network is becoming more and more centralized, but vertical industries hope that the network can be controlled by the enterprises themselves. The second is the problem of network capacity and lightweight. The network laid by operators for most users may not be used by enterprises. Enterprises hope for a low-cost, flexible and lightweight network. Third, operators require centralized operation and maintenance to improve efficiency, but vertical users hope to "take charge of my own territory" and manage the company's 5G network by themselves. Fourth, network operation and maintenance companies hope to make the network as good as possible, but enterprise users in vertical industries hope that the network will be more reliable. It is in this context that 5G's industry virtual private network came into being, that is, a virtual customizable private network provided to industry users that can meet the requirements of industry users themselves, with higher security and better quality.

According to reports, the industry virtual private network has entered the stage of large-scale deployment. As of the first quarter of this year, the three major operators have built various virtual private networks across the country to provide services for vertical users. The network architecture includes public network public, public network dedicated, and customized dedicated. "Through practice, we can see that in order to meet the needs of vertical customers, take into account the requirements of large-scale network deployment, and achieve the lowest social cost of the network, industry virtual private networks have become the first choice for various industries at present." Wen Ku said that in the finals of the third "Blooming Cup", more than 70% of the participating projects used 5G industry virtual private networks for deployment.

Finally, Wen Ku emphasized that 5G networks require low overall costs, high value, and guaranteed security. In the future, 5G industry virtual private networks must be explored from three aspects: first, cross-border research must be conducted to explore the network sinking model of the 5G full chain; second, replicability must be considered. Fragmentation will not lead to success. 5G application templates must be developed for key industries to form the basis for large-scale promotion; third, experiments must be conducted, 5G trials must be established in key industries, and an iterative output channel must be formed.