"Expert view" 5G has become a core component of the Industrial Internet

"5G has become a core component of the Industrial Internet." At the 2021 IMT-2020 (5G) Conference held recently, Zhang Ping, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, delivered a keynote speech. He said that 5G is generating more demand and services, and the application of 5G in the field of industrial Internet is worth looking forward to.

Zhang Ping said frankly that at present, the development of 5G technology in China is still in its infancy, and the industry should continue to work hard to create a wireless network with low latency, high reliability and high security, while also exploring a good business model. At present, 5G has been widely used in flexible manufacturing scenarios, including sensors, robotic arms, assembly workshops, etc. have been well promoted and applied, but further promotion is still needed.

"5G applications also face many challenges." Zhang Ping believes that in the past, wireless networks mainly engaged in information reception between people, while in the era of industrial Internet, it was autonomous perception for machines, and the difference between the two was huge.

Zhang Ping said that at present, there is still a large room for development in the development of China's industrial Internet. From the perspective of the network level, wireless perception and control and communication are still separated. Future industrial application scenarios, especially the application of technologies such as artificial intelligence, automatic driving, blockchain, and the Internet of Things, put forward new requirements for time sensitivity, requiring the computing power resources of the cloud, edge, and end to support the real-time and efficient processing of compute-intensive businesses.

"The channel construction of the industrial Internet is also the focus that should be paid attention to." Zhang Ping believes that the construction of the industrial Internet should fully consider the differences between factories and ordinary environments. The factory environment is often covered with metal reflectors, and the machine will be subject to electromagnetic interference, which will affect the production assembly. At the same time, the characteristics of the channel itself, the increase in penetration loss, the increase in reflection intensity, and electromagnetic noise will also affect production. Therefore, the industry should pay attention to the channel construction of the industrial Internet, especially the path loss, shadow fading and parameters.

"Traditional protocols that meet the communication needs of people are no longer applicable to the development of the industrial Internet." Zhang Ping pointed out that the traditional communication protocol is mainly based on the communication scenario between people, which is not applicable in the machine age, and the industry needs to change the protocol method. In this process, it is particularly necessary to pay attention to some difficulties, such as the traditional architecture level is solidified, and the characteristics of high level, long process, and large core network latency bring great challenges to the transformation. At the same time, the perception, communication, and control of each band are separated, and today's construction of the industrial Internet needs to be reconsidered, and the timing problem needs to be reconsidered, and effective perception and sorting should be carried out. "This requires adapting our architecture and interaction protocols, and requiring a sensory integration network, which is a good direction for the future." He stressed.

For future technological evolution, Zhang Ping believes that the industry should work together to create a "sense-transmission-computing-use" integrated wireless network architecture, as well as flexible configurable and trusted interactive protocols to meet the requirements of industrial Internet security, reliability and timing, so that 5G and industrial Internet can better empower the digital transformation of all walks of life.

Source: People's Post and Telegraph