In the new era, how can operators seize the opportunity of industrial Internet?

2020 is the year when 5G enters large-scale application. By the end of 2020, my country has opened 718,000 5G base stations, with more than 180 million terminal connections, and more than 32,000 5G base stations applied to the industrial Internet. The high speed, large bandwidth, and low latency performance of 5G networks will help traditional factories transform, connect the resources of the entire industrial production process, and promote the implementation of industrial Internet projects. So far, there are more than 1,100 "5G+Industrial Internet" projects across the country.

The development of the industrial Internet has been fast-forwarded. The China Industrial Internet Research Institute predicts that in 2020, the added value of my country's industrial Internet industry will reach 3.78 trillion yuan, accounting for 3.63% of GDP, and will drive employment to 1.3129 million people.

Industrial Internet application scenarios flourish

During the most tense period of epidemic prevention and control in 2020, the Industrial Internet played a huge role in helping the pharmaceutical industry accelerate its digital transformation.

Xiangxue Pharmaceutical has applied industrial Internet technology in the production of antiviral oral liquid. Through the identification resolution system, it has given each component, machine, equipment, and product a "digital ID card", allowing consumers to trace each production link of the product and verify the authenticity of the product by querying the identification code.

The mask traceability platform, an industrial Internet identification resolution system jointly built by China Electronics Industry Internet Co., Ltd. and China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, has also been successfully implemented in Changsha, Hunan. This not only makes it convenient for consumers to query the production data of masks through identification codes, but also facilitates market inspection departments to supervise the production and sales process of masks.

The three major operators, unwilling to be the "plumbers" of the basic network in the 5G era, have also accelerated innovation in the field of industrial Internet and created a number of benchmark projects in 2020.

China Telecom

Since 2020, China Telecom has helped high-end manufacturing companies upgrade from manufacturing to "smart" manufacturing. In the cooperation with AECC South Company on the overall solution of "5G+Industrial Internet", China Telecom has realized multiple application scenarios including equipment data collection, machine vision, high-definition video surveillance + AI, and intelligent logistics, solving the problems of unstable quality, long processing time, and high rework rate in domestic blade disc processing.

At the same time, based on the 5G high-quality intranet currently built in the factory of AECC South Company, AECC uses 5G+MEC+AI machine vision applications to realize automatic replacement of tool wear through AGV, and uses 5G sensors to perform adaptive control processing of shaft milling, drilling, reaming and other processing processes.

China Mobile

In the refractory industry, the "5G+Industrial Internet" platform focuses on key processes such as equipment management, quality management, planning and scheduling, cost analysis and accounting, etc., which solves the pain points and problems in traditional production, such as large fluctuations in production quality, inability to trace quality, extensive equipment management, inaccurate cost accounting, redundant and scattered data in the production process, paper-based reporting and statistical reports, and low efficiency in information communication and transmission.

In line with the actual needs of Zhengzhou Ruitai, Zhengzhou Mobile uses 5G+ cloud MES, 5G+ machine vision, 5G+ kiln temperature detection and other technologies to collect and upload the operation status of all equipment in real time to the cloud. Through background process logic analysis and calculation, feedback and adjustment are used to control the operation of the equipment. A far-infrared automatic thermometer is used to collect and monitor the operating parameters of each link inside the kiln, so as to achieve a stable, balanced and precise firing process and comprehensively improve product quality.

At the same time, visual equipment is installed at the robot's suction cup position to scan the product appearance and perform AI recognition and comparison with the built-in qualified appearance. This can effectively mark defective products with unqualified appearance and then remove them during back-end packaging and stacking, perfectly solving the problem of product quality inspection.

In steel plants, "5G+Industrial Internet Platform" can also solve practical production problems.

Through 5G+UHD video technology, the collected videos and images are transmitted to the monitoring platform in real time. Combined with intelligent recognition technologies such as face recognition and behavior analysis, Zhengzhou Mobile has realized real-time analysis and early warning of environmental risks, personnel violations, equipment operation and maintenance, etc. in the factory area of ​​Zhengzhou Baoye Steel Structure Co., Ltd., effectively improving the intelligent management level of safe production. Through 5G+VR technology, the factory can communicate with foreign experts in high definition remotely, so that experts can provide guidance on the on-site situation even if they are far away overseas, solving the problems of insufficient after-sales service personnel, scarce expert resources, and irregular operation of workers.

China Unicom

On December 11, 2020, Shanghai Unicom demonstrated its application in smart navigation scenarios. Shanghai Unicom has created the world's first ship self-organizing network application combined with 5G technology, achieving full network coverage of important cabins of large ships, and providing high-quality network coverage for applications such as ship internal security, video surveillance, and offshore office.

At the same time, in response to problems such as scattered industrial chain links, inconsistent drawing standards, complex project management, and long design modeling cycles in the ship design stage, Shanghai Unicom has created a collaborative design service platform based on the shipbuilding industry, giving full play to the synergy between enterprises, enabling suppliers to directly participate in modeling and online model delivery, and greatly improving work efficiency in the design process.

At present, Shanghai Unicom has implemented six application scenarios of "5G+Industrial Internet" in the field of shipbuilding, including welding machine networking applications, 5G-based machine vision inspection, 5G-based AR/VR applications, 5G-based ship self-organizing networks, 5G-based AGV applications, and design collaboration platform applications.

As the country proposes to accelerate the "new infrastructure", emerging technology clusters such as 5G, data centers, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence continue to release the superimposed effects of integrated development. As an important part of the information infrastructure, the industrial Internet will become a key carrier for the implementation of emerging technologies in the industrial field. It is being paid attention to by more and more manufacturing companies. In the future, telecom operators will have greater room for creativity in the field of industrial Internet.

Operators face three major challenges in developing the industrial Internet

Although the industrial Internet has become a new trend in the past two years and many giants have entered the market to compete, there are still some obstacles for telecom operators to truly delve into this field and apply the industrial Internet on a large scale.

Cross-border integration is difficult. Telecom operators lack industrial production experience and lack understanding of factory pain points and deployment environments. Telecom operators also need to participate in more cross-border cooperation and strengthen communication with industrial enterprises to better understand the needs of industrial enterprises.

The requirements of industrial Internet platforms vary greatly. Each factory has a different manufacturing process, and it is impossible to form a universal platform. The development and construction of the platform is difficult and costly. Currently, most industrial Internet applications are only in a certain production link, and further technical development is needed to achieve overall interoperability of the entire process.

Data information security challenges are great. In the past, the production environment of industrial enterprises was relatively closed, and the security challenges of data transmission were not that great. However, once industrial production data is put on the cloud, the issues of cloud security, edge security, and internal protocol security will become complicated. Enterprises' concerns about data security have seriously affected their enthusiasm for cloud migration.

Three major suggestions to promote the development of industrial Internet for operators

As indispensable builders and executors of the Industrial Internet, telecom operators need to be prepared in the following aspects.

Telecom operators cannot relax their network construction. 5G network is the foundation of industrial Internet data transmission. Telecom operators should give full play to the advantages of network connection and provide customers with a low-latency, high-bandwidth, and private network isolated from public network data through technologies such as 5G network slicing to ensure the timeliness and security of data transmission and increase customer enthusiasm for cloud data migration.

Adjust the organizational structure and prepare for talent reserve. The Industrial Internet requires the cross-border integration of industrial technology and IT technology, management and technology, business and application, and there is a large gap in compound talents. Operators urgently need to establish a more extensive cross-border talent training mechanism.

Build a full-process product system and provide post-platform maintenance services. In actual industrial scenarios, telecom operators cannot simply connect the network to terminal equipment, but also need to provide continuous maintenance and support services in the later stage, which is conducive to their continuous collection of industrial big data and mining of data value, accelerating the interconnection of the entire production process and helping traditional industries to upgrade and transform digitally.

China will initially move towards becoming a manufacturing power in the next 5 to 10 years, and the industrial Internet, as an important carrier, is accelerating the release of its power. At the same time, the integration of 5G and the industrial Internet will accelerate the construction of a digital China and a smart society, accelerate China's new industrialization process, and inject new impetus into China's economic development. The industrial Internet has broad prospects. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently made it clear that by 2022, five industrial public service platforms will be built, covering 10 key industries and forming at least 20 typical industrial application scenarios.

However, we must also realize that the Industrial Internet needs to form a healthy industry development model, continue to improve the industry standard system, promote high-level open cooperation across the entire industry chain, guide more companies to participate in research and development, and improve data security protection capabilities. Looking forward to 2021, with the promotion of policies and capital investment, the Industrial Internet will surely have great potential and drive more and more companies to change their production methods.