After 40 years of rapid development, today’s human communication technology is in an unprecedented heyday. The communication connection technologies represented by 5G and Wi-Fi 6 will not only further meet the needs of Internet of People applications, but also gradually unearth more and more Internet of Things application scenarios, thereby promoting the entire society to an era of “Internet of Everything”.
Human society has gradually moved from “no connection” and “weak connection” to “smart connection”. The scale of the global network connection is no longer limited to the total population of the world, but a much larger number of things in the world. According to GSMA’s forecast, by 2025, there will be 25 billion devices connected to and connected to 5G networks worldwide. IDC even believes that the total number of global IoT devices will reach 41.6 billion in 2025. Faced with such a huge connection scale, we can’t help thinking:
Quantitative changes usually cause qualitative changes. What kind of requirements will be raised in the future connection scenarios?
Can our existing connection technology meet future connection needs?
We are not connected for the sake of connection, but for value. So, how does connection create value?
Recently, a new term in the industry has gradually become popular, and I have given my own answers to the above questions. This term is “smart connection”.
What is smart connection
At first glance, the term “smart connection” seems familiar. “Smart” and “connection” are both familiar concepts.
When it comes to intelligence, AI will first come to mind. Over the years, as the most popular cutting-edge technology, AI has long been known to people.
Connection is actually a more advanced “connection”. Connection is just connection, and connection is on the basis of connection, which emphasizes union and combination to form a whole. Whether it is connection or connection, the essence is communication.
So, is intelligent connection a simple “AI + communication”?
of course not.
In fact, intelligent connection is a very macro concept. It is not a specific technology, but a set of solutions for all scenarios .
Intelligent connection does not exist independently. It forms an intelligent body together with intelligent interaction, intelligent hub and intelligent applications.
The agent mentioned here is a completely new concept. It is an intelligent upgrade reference architecture, mainly for government and enterprise user groups. For example, in an intelligent manufacturing automobile factory, all the IT, CT and OT systems surrounding its business model and business processes together constitute an intelligent body in the industrial field.
It can also be seen from the following figure of the agent architecture that the agent is an integrated intelligent system of cloud and network side-end collaboration.
If the intelligent body is compared to the human body, then the intelligent center is the brain, and intelligent interaction is the limbs. The smart hub is the most important and plays a decision-making role, involving technologies such as cloud computing and big data. It emphasizes computing power.
The intelligent connection is the torso that supports the entire agent, which essentially acts as a connection. It mainly involves communication technology and emphasizes the connection force.
The role of intelligent connection can be summarized in three aspects:
One is to support the internal connections of the intelligent hub, such as the interconnection of AI cluster servers and the interconnection between cloud data centers;
The second is to support the connection between the smart hub and the smart interactive device, that is, the connection between the cloud side ends;
The third is to support the connection between intelligent interactive devices, such as the interconnection between AI cameras, 4K drones, and industrial robotic arms.
Intelligent connection serves the agent, and the agent has five requirements for intelligent connection: high reliability, lossless zero packet loss, differentiated services, real-time large bandwidth, and intelligent operation and maintenance.
The other four are easier to understand. What is differentiated service? Differentiated service is to provide different network characteristics for different application scenarios. For example, for the Internet of Vehicles, the network can provide lower delay, for video on demand, the network can provide greater bandwidth, and so on. What we often call network slicing is to provide differentiated services.
The proponent of the agent concept believes that intelligent connection should have three basic characteristics:
The first is ubiquitous gigabit, that is, gigabit connectivity that is ubiquitous and seamless. Bandwidth is the first element of connection capability. Industrial applications such as VR/AR industrial inspection, 4K/8K ultra-high-definition video live broadcast, and AI smart cameras are all inseparable from gigabit bandwidth.
Then there is the deterministic experience, that is, the ultra-high reliability of system operation and the ultra-high stability of performance indicators such as delay. I can tolerate that your delay is not extremely low, but it can’t jitter, 1ms for a while, 100ms for a while, like this. Representative scenes are high-speed rail, airport, electricity, etc.
The last is hyper-automation. The explosive growth of the scale of connections means the growth of the network itself and the increase in network complexity. The difficulty of network operation and maintenance will exceed the limit of manual operation and maintenance. Therefore, the introduction of AI to achieve intelligent operation and maintenance is the general trend.
The key technology of intelligent connection
How can we make intelligent connections have the above three basic characteristics? In order to realize the super strong connection force of intelligent connection, what specific technical means need to be introduced?
In fact, as mentioned earlier, intelligent connection is a full-scenario solution rather than a brand-new technical standard.
The foundation of intelligent connection is still the technical framework of mobile communications and fixed-line communications. What Smart Connection does is to sort out a more reasonable and complete framework model from the perspective of users and demand scenarios.
In response to the special needs of different scenarios, Smart Connect has carried out secondary innovations on the basis of existing technologies, improved indicators, simplified solutions, improved experience, and made it more convenient for users.
I believe everyone has guessed the first technology base for intelligent connection, which is now in full swing 5G.
Based on the existing 5G conventional performance indicators, intelligent connection has added three important improvements, namely: Gbps uplink, 20ms low latency, and sub-meter positioning.
We know that 5G now has Gbps downlink capability, but the uplink is insufficient. For video backhaul scenarios, uplink is a rigid demand. Intelligent connection introduces the super uplink SUL technology to achieve the uplink Gbps rate.
The low latency of 20ms relies on the introduction of features such as pre-scheduling and mini-slot, mainly serving remote control scenarios.
The realization of sub-meter positioning capability depends on the introduction of UTDOA (Uplink Time Difference of Arrival) technology and the use of larger spectrum bandwidth.
In addition to 5G, another important technology base is F5G, which has developed rapidly this year, which is The 5th generation Fixed networks.
People now generally refer to traditional 5G as the “5G network in the sky” and F5G as the “5G network in the ground”. The core of F5G is the all-optical network, and its vision is “Fibre to Everywhere”.
The representative technologies of F5G are 10G PON (fiber broadband access with a user rate of Gbps), Wi-Fi 6, 200G/400G, OXC (all optical crossover), NG OTN (next generation optical transport network), etc.
F5G’s all-optical network is actually the basic bearer network for mobile 5G data transmission, which provides support for mobile 5G in terms of bandwidth, delay, and stability.
F5G and 5G share some technologies and networks. In many application scenarios, F5G has more advantages than 5G.
F5G’s low latency, large bandwidth, multiple connections, and anti-interference features are more in line with those connection demands that do not require mobility. Moreover, F5G’s power consumption is lower, which not only helps protect the environment, but also helps reduce costs.
In other words, whether it is 5G or F5G, they are all technical methods, and there is no difference between good and bad, and there is no difference between important and unimportant. F5G and 5G can work together effectively, complement each other, better enhance user perception, and meet the diverse needs of users.
In addition to 5G and F5G, smart connections also include smart IP networks for campuses, wide areas, and data centers, as well as IPv6+.
Why should I emphasize IPv6+ alone? Because of the introduction of IPv6+, one-hop direct access to intelligent interactive devices can be realized, enabling cross-domain content access. For example, remote access to camera data. IPv6 + is the prerequisite of “Wisdom Connect”. Without IPv6 +, it is not enough to realize intelligent connection.
How to understand the intelligence of intelligent connection?
Of course it is the introduction of AI.
Intelligent connection introduces AI, which mainly includes three levels: network element, network and cloud.
Network element + AI: Introduce AI into network elements and upgrade to digital intelligent network elements, allowing each network element and the entire network to be more sensitive to perception, processing and reasoning execution.
Network + AI: Use AI to reconstruct the network management, build a digital twin of the network through an intelligent management and control system, and realize dynamic control and closed loop of the network, such as automatic deployment, pre-simulation, post-check, preventive prediction, and active optimization.
Cloud + AI: Provide network AI training and model services on the cloud, and continue to upgrade equipment and software systems and AI models already on the network to obtain more autonomous driving capabilities and make the entire network smarter and smarter.
The value of smart connectivity
Finally, let’s take a look at the most important issue, which is the value issue. How does smart connection create value?
Will the connection create value? I don’t think this question needs to be answered. You can take a look at your mobile phone and imagine, if there is no mobile phone, if the mobile phone has no internet, and if there is no broadband at home or office, what will your work and life be like?
Modern mankind has become increasingly inseparable from the Internet. Similarly, with the gradual advancement of the “Internet of Everything”, various industries will also accelerate their integration with the industry Internet, feel the efficiency improvement brought by the industry Internet, and enjoy the digital dividend.
Intelligent connection and the intelligence behind it are undoubtedly the best way for industry enterprises to embrace the industry Internet.
Let us give a few simple examples.
First look at industrial Internet scenarios such as smart manufacturing.
Intelligent connection provides end-to-end ultra-low latency capability. The industrial robotic arm connected through the ultra-wide fixed-line optical fiber has higher response speed and accuracy, is suitable for more operation scenarios, and improves the production efficiency of the factory.
The ultra-large bandwidth capability provided by intelligent connection helps workers to perform remote device inspections through Wi-Fi 6 or 5G wireless VR glasses, which also improves efficiency.
The large uplink bandwidth of intelligent connection can transfer the massive high-definition inspection photos collected by the inspection camera (via ultra-wide fixed network access) back to the cloud, and use AI technology to compare defects and greatly improve inspection efficiency. With the help of IPv6+ technology, the robotic arms, VR glasses, and detection cameras mentioned above can all achieve remote one-hop access. Operators and management and maintenance personnel can directly connect to devices across domains.
In the field of telemedicine, intelligent connection can empower remote treatment. Ultra-high reliability and deterministic time delay allow doctors to perform remote surgery with confidence. It not only saves valuable treatment time, but also saves costs and reduces costs.
In remote mining scenarios, the mine environment is complex and there are many interference obstacles. The ultra-wide fixed network access can perfectly realize the remote control of mining equipment. It can also monitor various environmental parameters and video images in the mine, and send them back.
The current popular unmanned driving is inseparable from the ultra-large bandwidth, ultra-low latency and ultra-high reliability of intelligent connections. The popularity of unmanned driving in the freight field means the release of driver resources, the improvement of transportation efficiency, and the reduction of transportation costs.
In addition to unmanned vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned ships will also be widely used, which will also change the business model of the industry and generate greater commercial value.
In the next few days, at the 2020 Global Ultra Broadband Forum (UBBF), I believe that there will be more intelligent connection solutions proposed
All in all, the changes brought about by smart connections are disruptive. The connection force is the productivity, and the jump in the connection force is the jump in the productivity. With the continuous popularization of intelligent connection, the value multiplication effect it brings will become more obvious, and we will also accelerate into the era of true intelligence.
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