Challenges remain in the large-scale development stage of 5G applications

A recent investigation by reporters found that in the two years since 5G was put into commercial use, it has played an important role in the transformation of the real economy to digitalization, networking, and intelligence, but it also faces difficulties such as heavy financial pressure on enterprises, weak digital foundation of manufacturing, and immature industrial chain. The interviewed enterprises and experts said that my country's 5G application has entered the stage of large-scale development from "1 to N", and the demonstration and leading role of important industries and leading enterprises should be brought into play to accelerate the penetration of 5G from auxiliary links to core links of production, while increasing policy and financial support.

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Many enterprises have realized commercial implementation of 5G applications

5G is becoming a booster for the digital transformation and upgrading of industrial enterprises. With the accelerated implementation of 5G integrated innovation and scenario applications, some enterprises have transformed and upgraded in many aspects such as product planning models, enterprise service models, production models and management models.

The reporter recently learned from BYD that the company has cooperated with China Unicom in the 5G transformation of old factories, 5G smart cloud buses, 5G car networking, and 5G smart parks. "In terms of the transformation of old factories, the general assembly plant put into production in 2007 has enabled digital transformation through 5G to improve efficiency. It has planned 20 application scenarios such as 5G+AI, 5G+AR, and 5G+AGV, and 13 of them have been implemented so far." A relevant person in charge of BYD said that so far, the transformation has achieved good results, with a 3% reduction in comprehensive costs, a 15% reduction in the rework rate of key processes, and a 2.5% increase in comprehensive production efficiency.

Skyworth has joined hands with China Telecom to build a 5G private network and an industrial flexible manufacturing platform, and has also implemented four core 5G scenarios. "Combined with the characteristics of 5G technology, the project has realized perceptual intelligent production and transportation, intelligent management of park logistics, greatly improved the efficiency of production and transportation coordination, and reduced the failure rate of AGVs," said a relevant person in charge of Skyworth.

In the energy sector, 5G's low latency, large bandwidth, and wide connectivity, as well as its innovative features of network slicing and open capabilities, can meet the differentiated network requirements of power generation, transmission, transformation, distribution, and use. The reporter learned that the State Grid Corporation of China, China Mobile, and Huawei are jointly promoting the construction of the "5G Digital Grid". Zhou Jianyong, director of the Communication Management Department of the System Operation Department of the Shenzhen Power Supply Bureau of the State Grid Corporation of China, introduced that since the implementation of 5G+ robot inspection, the robot's camera has been used to collect video and infrared imaging data, and the 5G network has been used to transmit data in real time and control the robot's movement, realizing automatic inspection in the substation. Compared with traditional manual methods, the application of 5G combined with AI and other technologies has increased the transmission efficiency by 80 times.

Several projects have also emerged in the field of "5G+Smart Port". The reporter saw at Shenzhen 5G Mawan Smart Port that the company, together with Shenzhen Mobile, has built a 5G full-scenario smart port test field in the automated terminal (Haixing Port) area, realizing five major scenarios based on the 5G private network: unmanned container trucks, remote control of port machinery, intelligent tallying, networked drones, and smart operations. It is reported that the coordinated operation of 5G+unmanned container trucks has increased the overall operation efficiency of the port by 30%; 5G innovative applications have increased inspection efficiency by 100%, loading and unloading rates by 20%, and operational efficiency by 60%.

Helping industrial enterprises transform and upgrade

Two years after 5G was put into commercial use, with the rapid advancement of network construction, my country is entering the second stage of 5G development - the "from 1 to N" scale development stage. According to data provided by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as of July this year, there were more than 10,000 5G application innovation cases nationwide, ranking first in the world in terms of both quantity and innovation. More than 600 tertiary hospitals in the country have carried out 5G+ emergency first aid, remote diagnosis, health management and other applications; there are more than 1,500 "5G+Industrial Internet" projects nationwide, and 138 steel companies, 194 power companies, 175 mines, and 89 ports have realized the commercialization of 5G applications.

Hao Sencan, a senior expert at the Industrial and Energy Industry Development Department of China Mobile's Government and Enterprise Division, said in an interview with reporters that 5G is of great significance to the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing enterprises. On the one hand, unmanned and less-manned industries have become a trend in "factories of the future". The intelligent transformation of factories requires decision-making support through a large amount of data. 5G can meet the booming transmission needs of industrial big data. At the same time, 5G's edge computing technology, slicing technology and QoS mechanism can better help factories achieve reliable data transmission and secure isolation.

On the other hand, under the trend of flexible production, 5G can meet the flexible networking needs of industrial field networks. In manufacturing enterprises, personalized customization requires production lines to have higher flexibility, and even the ability to quickly add and remove mobile operating equipment to achieve production line reconstruction according to order changes and business needs. 5G technology can assist in this. At the same time, the technical characteristics of 5G can leave enough space for future enterprise network upgrades and expansions, thereby saving transformation costs.

Du Jiadong, deputy director of the 5G Application Innovation Center of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, said that 5G applications will bring three changes to the transformation and upgrading of industrial enterprises. First, the product planning model will change. Change the traditional regular planning and "cookie-cutter" design model to achieve personalized and real-time customization. Second, the enterprise service model will change from production-oriented and product-oriented to service-oriented. Third, the enterprise production model and management model will change from traditional large-scale and process-based production to personalized and lean production.

In response to the "5G Application "Sailing" Action Plan (2021-2023)" recently announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, the National Development and Reform Commission and other ten departments, Zhang Congwu, a senior engineer at the Radio Research Center of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, told reporters that unlike consumer Internet applications, the main battlefield of 5G applications is to empower the real economy. The introduction of the action plan reflects the country's high attention to the field of 5G applications. From the perspective of promoting the real economy, in the future, the focus will be on promoting the in-depth application of 5G in the fields of industrial Internet, Internet of Vehicles, smart logistics, smart ports, smart mining, smart electricity, smart oil and gas, smart agriculture and smart water conservancy, and accelerating the digital transformation process of key industries.

Need to increase policy support

However, industry experts also said that the large-scale development of 5G industry applications still faces certain challenges, including great financial pressure to promote 5G applications and the need for the industrial chain to mature; small and medium-sized enterprises have weak digital foundations and project implementation is difficult; industry standards need to be improved and cross-border integration needs to be further strengthened.

First, companies are under great financial pressure and the industrial chain needs to mature. Hao Sencan said that manufacturing companies, especially small and medium-sized manufacturing companies, have been hit by the epidemic in the past two years. They are short of personnel, market, supply, and funds. In the short term, they are willing to invest in new technologies such as 5G and industrial Internet, while the prices of terminals and equipment such as 5G modules are still relatively high.

The weak digital foundation of small and medium-sized enterprises is another major obstacle. Affected by various factors such as technical barriers, R&D costs, and market fragmentation, there are relatively few small and medium-sized enterprises in my country that carry out 5G application research and development. "The capabilities of 5G industrial private networks need to further match the actual needs of enterprises. Currently, operators represented by China Mobile have successively launched 5G private network deployment solutions and products for industrial Internet companies, but there is still a lack of integration solutions with enterprise intranets and OT and IT networks." said Hao Sencan.

In addition, industry experts said that there is currently a lack of complete, targeted and feasible industrial Internet industry standards and specifications based on 5G networks.

Du Jiadong believes that the construction of 5G business models is still in the exploratory stage. "At present, the integration of 5G and industry is still in its early stages, and the integration of IT and OT industries has just begun. This requires the two industries to run in and explore a 'win-win' business model, especially a business model for cooperation with small and medium-sized enterprises." He said.

How should 5G better play a role in the digital transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry in the future? Hao Sencan suggested that the government should increase financial support, promote financial subsidy support policies such as terminal modules and enterprise intranet transformation, and encourage enterprises to carry out 5G transformation; local governments should speed up the introduction of supporting policies, provide support to manufacturing enterprises in financial taxation and other aspects, encourage leading enterprises to take the lead in trial, and support the intelligent transformation and upgrading of small and medium-sized enterprises.

At the same time, operators and 5G solution providers need to go deep into the industry and understand the industry. Hao Sencan suggested that leading enterprises should play a leading role in demonstration, deepen the creation and replication of 5G application scenarios, actively cooperate with operators, and gradually penetrate from auxiliary links to core production links; encourage large manufacturing companies to jointly participate in the formulation of 5G standards in subdivided industries. "This requires leading manufacturing companies to take the lead, work together with the industrial chain, and jointly promote the construction of relevant 5G standard systems in the manufacturing industry." Hao Sencan said.

Du Gadong believes that in the future, we can incubate the ecosystem by building a public service platform to reduce corporate R&D costs and technical barriers; we can use application benchmarks to let companies see the value of applications and explore feasible business models in different situations.