The three major operators work together to accelerate the integrated development of "5G + Industrial Internet"

In recent years, the industrial Internet has grown from concept to implementation, and now it has become very popular. Especially with the development of 5G and the proposal of new infrastructure, "5G + Industrial Internet" has become the focus of attention in the industry, and it has triggered a wave of heated discussions from time to time.

Overall, although there are still some challenges in the development of the industrial Internet, it is undeniable that my country's industrial Internet has made very good progress and entered a stage of continuous deepening. Under the influence of 5G and new infrastructure, the industrial Internet has more advantageous conditions for accelerated development.

"With the joint efforts of all sectors of society, my country's industrial Internet has accelerated its development, the industry's enthusiasm for promoting 5G commercialization has continued to increase, and industrial enterprises' willingness to upgrade and transform their networks has continued to increase. Favorable conditions for the integrated development of 5G+Industrial Internet have gradually formed." Zhang Feng, member of the Party Leadership Group and chief engineer of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, spoke at last year's World 5G Conference.

5G is a key enabling technology for the Industrial Internet, and the industrial field is the main application scenario of 5G. The importance of 5G technology in the Industrial Internet is self-evident. "5G + Industrial Internet" is getting closer and closer. As the basic network provider, operators undoubtedly play an important role in the Industrial Internet industry, and their role and responsibility are becoming increasingly important.

We can also see that the three major operators currently have layouts in the field of industrial Internet, especially in the 5G industrial Internet. They have deeply integrated with industrial manufacturing companies to set up experimental pilots, explore more possibilities for the integration of 5G and industrial Internet, and try more application scenarios of 5G industrial Internet.

5G Empowers Industrial Internet

2020 is a key year for the large-scale explosion of 5G. The new infrastructure will play a positive role in promoting the development of the 5G industrial chain. At the same time, 5G is also one of the most critical infrastructures in the new infrastructure. The characteristics of 5G will also open up new opportunities for industrial applications.

It is understood that 5G's enhanced mobile broadband, high reliability, low latency, wide coverage and large connection characteristics meet the needs of industrial enterprise intranets. At the same time, as a public network, it can provide external network services to enterprises in a slicing manner.

At the same time, the 5G wireless transmission platform seamlessly integrates new-generation technologies such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain, and the Internet of Things, and combines it with production operation technology (OT) to give full play to the role of data as a production factor and support the development of the industrial Internet.

The integrated development of "5G+Industrial Internet" has also become the focus of the entire industry.

5G TSN technology can realize wireless TSN within the factory and ensure end-to-end low latency for industrial Internet services; 5G high frequency and antenna technology support precise positioning and high-bandwidth communication within the factory, greatly improving operational accuracy in the remote control field; 5G edge computing technology is accelerating the integration of industrial IT and OT networks and enhancing the intelligence of the edge within manufacturing plants.

According to IDC forecasts, more than 50% of data will be processed at the edge in the future. By 2020, edge computing spending will account for 18% of total IoT infrastructure spending, and the cost will be only 39% of using central cloud computing alone.

Industrial ultra-high-definition video and VR/AR have high requirements for bandwidth and latency. Industrial VR/AR applications require fast response. For example, VR helmets will cause dizziness if the latency exceeds 7 milliseconds. 5G's ultra-low latency can meet VR requirements. 5G is applied to the SaaS layer, embedded in industrial control management software, and combined with the Internet of Things, big data, cloud computing, and AI. Taking the long-term planning of a factory as an example, there is no need to hold a temporary production scheduling meeting, and the execution time of intelligent ERP can be shortened by 25%.

It is reported that "5G+Industrial Internet" focuses on industrial manufacturing, energy grid, smart ports and other fields. At present, my country's "5G+Industrial Internet" integrated application types have reached more than 20 types.

The three major operators work together

As a product of the deep integration of the industrial system and the Internet system under the digital wave, the Industrial Internet is the key support for the new round of industrial revolution. The three major operators are naturally unwilling to play only the role of basic network providers in the development of the Industrial Internet, and have used their own advantages to start the layout in the field of Industrial Internet.

Especially in terms of "5G+Industrial Internet", the three operators have achieved quite obvious results.

China Mobile believes that 5G will be an important foundation for the industrial Internet, will change the production and operation methods of traditional enterprises, and promote industrial upgrading and digital transformation. Based on this, in 2018, China Mobile established three industrial research institutes in Shanghai, Chengdu, and Xiong'an to deepen its vertical fields based on 5G.

At present, China Mobile has built an industrial Internet "1+4" product system that penetrates the industry by focusing on three major issues: equipment networking, data analysis, and industry mechanism standardization, in order to empower the industrial industry.

In addition, based on the "1+4" product system, China Mobile has also built the China Mobile "Industrial Cloud Platform" solution to help millions of industrial enterprises go to the cloud. It is reported that the platform has currently served the charging pile business in 9 provinces, the gas meter reading business of more than 130 branches, and 300,000 engineering machinery equipment.

China Telecom believes that 5G will become an innovation engine for the industrial Internet. According to China Telecom, through development in multiple areas, China Telecom has already acquired strong industrial Internet capabilities.

It is understood that China Telecom has been actively promoting the formulation of relevant standards for the industrial Internet and the verification of test beds. In July 2016, China Telecom and CAICT jointly released the "Industrial Connectivity Plan White Paper", which defined the specifications and standards of "industrial connectivity" for the first time in the industry; in 2018, China Telecom released the "Industrial Data Collection Industry Research Report".

In addition, China Telecom has also made a lot of efforts to promote the development of the Industrial Internet in terms of industrial data innovation, cloud platform and 5G.

As of 2018, China Telecom's "Yinglian Industrial Internet Platform" has achieved platform docking and integration with many partners. Industrial applications and industrial APPs have involved more than a dozen industries, reaching hundreds, and have built a "five-in-one" professional industrial service network covering the whole country.

China Telecom has built a cross-industry and cross-domain Tianyi Cloud Industrial Internet platform based on the cloud-network integration, security and reliability of Tianyi Cloud. The platform takes industrial intelligent connection as the entry point, provides a series of services such as advanced industrial PON network connection and data collection, and helps enterprises improve quality and efficiency and reduce costs. At the same time, combining 5G and the industrial Internet platform, China Telecom has also created two major ecosystems: industrial edge applications and 5G industrial applications.

China Unicom's achievements in the development of the industrial Internet are mainly concentrated in 5G support, cloud-network integration, big data and platform empowerment. Not only has it established physical teams and alliances, including the 5G Innovation Center, the Internet of Things Industry Alliance, the Intelligent Network Center, and the Industrial Internet Product Center, it has fully supported the development of the industrial Internet by integrating internal forces and collaborating with external partners. China Unicom has also previously released the Industrial Internet CUII product system, covering six major product sectors: connection, platform, identification, collection, application, and security.

Recently, China Unicom has made new moves in the field of "5G+Industrial Internet". China Unicom has officially launched the "5G+Industrial Internet Action Plan" and the "5G+Industrial Internet Application Scenario Joint Innovation Plan", and has released three "5G private network products" and two "5G private line products".

In addition, China Unicom also insists on multi-party collaboration and establishes a special organization to promote the rapid development of the industry. China Unicom signed an agreement with China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, Zhejiang Zhongkong, and Zhejiang Lanzhuo to jointly establish the "5G+Industrial Internet Joint Innovation Center". The four parties will cooperate deeply in multiple fields, innovate cooperation models, build a standardized, sustainable, harmonious and win-win industrial environment, and promote the digitalization, networking, and intelligent upgrading of industrial enterprises.

In addition, in order to further help industrial enterprises enter a new digital era, China Unicom also launched the "China Unicom 5G+Industrial Internet Application Scenario Joint Innovation Plan".

At present, China Unicom has built five major collaborative capabilities including "multi-park cloud-network integration", "MEC edge-network integration", "flexible customization of 5G base station wireless resources", "steward-style enterprise hosting" and "smooth connection of enterprise IT", which can better empower industrial enterprises and accelerate the pace of digital transformation in all walks of life.

We have seen that although operators have achieved fruitful results in "5G + Industrial Internet", it is undeniable that there are still certain drawbacks in this regard in our country, and there is still considerable room for improvement. In this process, we can also work together with all parties in the industry to continuously enhance the development foundation, strengthen the research and development of technical standards, and build a sound industrial ecology, so that "5G + Industrial Internet" can take off as soon as possible.