Information infrastructure is the nerve center of economic and social operation. General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly stressed the need to open up the information "artery" of economic and social development and promote the integrated development of the digital economy and the real economy. Since the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the construction of information infrastructure on the mainland has developed by leaps and bounds. Among them, since four operators obtained 5G licenses on June 6, 2019, mainland 5G commercialization has made an important breakthrough.
As the vanguard of central enterprises in the mobile information industry, China Mobile has vigorously promoted the integration of 5G into thousands of industries, and has built 200 5G leading demonstration projects, signed more than 2,800 high-quality commercial housing projects, and expanded 1,590 5G private network projects. "In order to better meet the needs of the industry, based on the concept of cloudification, intelligence and openness, we propose a smart and simple 5G industry network with five major capability elements of 'network extreme simplification, capability modularization, service integration, deployment agility, and intelligent operation and maintenance'." Zhang Long, technical manager of the Wireless and Terminal Technology Research Institute of China Mobile Research Institute, said at the "5G Small Base Station Empowerment Vertical Industry Seminar" recently held by Communications World All Media, "The cloud network industry integration small station is an important part of the Zhijian 5G industry network, and by increasing the computing power on the base station, it can realize the integrated deployment of virtualized network elements, edge computing platforms, and industry applications, realize the integrated packaging and delivery of the cloud network industry, and help 5G sail." ”
Zhang Long, technical manager of wireless and terminal technology research institute of China Mobile Research Institute
Industry customers have four major demands for 5G private networks
At this seminar, Zhang Long shared how China Mobile's smart and simple industry network can help 5G sail from three aspects: the demand for 5G industry private network, the architecture and application cases of Smart-Simple 5G Industry Network. "Based on many cases, we have distilled the four major needs of industry customers for 5G private networks, including capability customization, cost controllability, agile deployment, and ease of use." Zhang Long said.
Specifically, in terms of capability customization, the needs of thousands of industries are very different, which can be summarized into two major aspects. First, the network performance is required to be extreme, such as some factory business requirements for delay stability of less than 4ms, such as mines generally require sub-meter-level high-precision positioning. Second, the requirements can be flexibly customized, and it is necessary to differentiate the processing in terms of security isolation level and business quality assurance for different users and different services. "It is necessary to avoid both under-guarantee and over-guarantee, so as to achieve optimal protection." Zhang Long said.
In terms of cost controllability, the enterprise information transformation budget is limited, price sensitive, and attaches great importance to the cost performance of the program. On the one hand, it is necessary to achieve high quality with controllable costs; on the other hand, it needs to be low cost with acceptable performance.
In terms of deploying agile, customers who require short network deployment times to better match their production cadence, especially smoges, are very concerned about deploying agile. First, the network deployment is relatively agile, and the time from the requirements of enterprise customers to the opening of the network is relatively short, such as some mining projects require the network to be opened within 10 days. Second, it is necessary to achieve one-stop delivery of the cloud network industry, and enterprise customers hope that operators will provide networks while doing a good job in business, one step in place, and no need to find other business providers to dock and process.
In terms of ease of use, customers require private network products to be Internetized, online, and automated to order network capabilities, network services, network operation and maintenance, etc.; secondly, to be used autonomously, customers can realize self-development, self-service, and self-operation and maintenance.
Five major capability elements to build a smart and simple industry network
In order to better meet the needs of the industry, based on the concept of cloudification, intelligence and openness, we propose a smart 5G industry network with five major capability elements of "network extreme simplification, capability modularization, service integration, deployment agility, and intelligent operation and maintenance", and create a new type of infrastructure with extreme simplification, flexible customization, cloud-network integration, intelligent and easy-to-use.
This year, the mainland will also make further efforts in the construction of base stations, and it is expected that the number of Base Stations of China Mobile will exceed 1 million by the end of the year. "The small station is an important part of the Zhijian 5G industry network. Compared with macro stations, small stations have been significantly reduced in terms of power consumption or number of channels or network performance and specifications, and have achieved network extreme simplification to a certain extent, which can further focus on capability modularization and service integration. Zhang Long said.
Capability modularization is a combination of capabilities that are flexibly reused for specific industry scenarios. Facing the differentiated and extreme needs of thousands of industries, China Mobile modularizes the network equipment, network capabilities and application capabilities of the 5G private network, on the one hand, it continues to enhance and expand atomic capabilities, on the other hand, it will classify and file capabilities, reuse and flexibly combine them according to industry needs, and quickly form comprehensive solutions for specific industries.
For some specific scene needs, Zhang Long said: "Industrial manufacturing and other extreme performance scenarios mainly occur indoors, and the expansion of more extreme atomic capabilities of small stations has both needs and conditions, especially in high-precision positioning (such as UDOA positioning, etc.), URLLC (such as DS frame structure, etc.), etc. At present, it is not very mature, and it is necessary for the industry to work together to continue to tackle the problem." The ability of the small station is stronger, and it can better meet the extreme needs of the industry. ”
In terms of service integration, Zhang Long said that China Mobile is facing the industry customers' packaging delivery needs, launching a cloud network industry integrated base station with integrated computing power, integrating network elements, cloud service platforms, capability components, and industry applications on demand, and providing one-stop delivery services for the cloud network industry with "high-quality connections + rich capabilities + characteristic services".
"We integrate a certain amount of computing power on the base station, which can mainly do three things, one is to create high-quality connections, achieve lightweight local diversion, and efficiently meet the needs of customer data that does not appear; at the same time, we can also provide some AI computing power, make some network algorithms more intelligent, and optimize network performance." The second is to achieve the open sharing of rich capabilities, open up the characteristic capabilities of wireless, and better empower industry applications. The third is to provide on-demand integration of characteristic services, integrated delivery of the cloud and network industry, and establish an application ecosystem. Zhang Long said.
In his view, the current industrial ecology of the small station is very diverse, with both traditional main equipment manufacturers and emerging players. There are also different paths for the integrated evolution of the cloud and network industry, such as traditional BBU superimposed computing power boards or BBU direct virtualization, both of which can be actively explored.
At the meeting, Zhang Long listed some application cases of the smart industry network, such as in Zhejiang, China Mobile joined hands with industry customers to pilot the cloud network industry integrated base station in factories, hospitals and other scenarios. Through the agile and efficient implementation of 5G small stations, high-quality network coverage is realized, and the digital transformation and upgrading of the industry is helped. It is reported that in the case of the smart factory, relying on the integrated base station of the cloud network industry, it provides high-quality connections for hierarchical and file-divided files, provides differentiated guarantees for public network users, AGV services, electronic fences and other services, and at the same time realizes the integrated integration and delivery of local diversion units, wireless capability open units, electronic fence applications, etc., greatly reduces the network opening time, shortens the response time of electronic fence alarms by 70%, and helps the factory to produce smart production, safe production and efficient operation.
In the process of 5G development, all walks of life in industry, academia and research should form a synergy and integrate with each other to promote the continuous innovation and development of 5G in technology, industry and application ecology. For small base stations is no exception, the next step, but also need the industry to screw into a joint force, accelerate the maturity of the intelligent and simple industry network, through the cloud network industry integration of 5G small station to accelerate the development of thousands of industries.
End
Author: Meng Yue
Editor-in-Charge/Layout: Fan Fan
Review: Shen Qing
Producer: Liu Qicheng
Click to learn about the "East Counting West Counting" Industrial Development Forum
I knew you were "watching"