Guided reading

Yesterday, the general office of the Ministry of industry and information technology officially issued the notice on further promoting the all-round development of the mobile Internet of things, which is the first document dedicated to the field of the Internet of things in 2020. In this notice, the Ministry of industry and information technology has deployed five key tasks, including network construction, technical standards, industrial application, industrial system and security, many of which deserve the attention of the industry.

Yesterday, the general office of the Ministry of industry and information technology officially issued the notice on further promoting the all-round development of the mobile Internet of things, which is the first document dedicated to the field of the Internet of things in 2020.

In this notice, the Ministry of industry and information technology deployed five key tasks, includingNetwork construction, technical standards, industrial application, industrial system and securityThe notice is formed on the basis of in-depth investigation of the basic situation of the domestic Internet of things. To a certain extent, it reflects the trend and focus of industrial development in this year and the next few years. Many aspects deserve the attention of the industry. The author chooses several items for interpretation.

     

Source: website of the Ministry of industry and information technology

First, 2G / 3G migration and network transfer was officially proposed in the form of public issuance for the first time

At the beginning of this notice, it is clearly proposed to "promote the migration and network transfer of 2G / 3G Internet of things services". In October 2019, Wen Ku, director of the information and Communication Department of the Ministry of industry and information technology, mentioned at the press conference held by the Information Office of the State Council on the development of industrial communication industry in the first three quarters of 2019"China's mobile communication network is facing 2G and 3G withdrawal, and the conditions have gradually matured", which can be regarded as the first official attitude towards 2G / 3G withdrawal. The release of the notice is the first time that the Ministry of industry and information technology has clarified the attitude of 2G / 3G network withdrawal in the form of official documents.

As early as a few years ago, the topic of 2G / 3G frequency reduction and de networking emerged one after another in the industry, and various operators also started the work of 2G / 3G frequency reduction and de networking to varying degrees and launched various alternative schemes. For example, in its annual report, China Unicom clearly proposed "promoting 2 / 3G frequency reduction and network withdrawal in different regions, reducing network transportation costs and re cultivating spectrum resources"; China Mobile also explicitly mentioned in the 5g terminal product guidelines released in 2018 that the terminal is no longer required to support TD-SCDMA in the mode and frequency band of the terminal. In the future, 5g terminals only need to support NR / TD-LTE / LTE FDD / WCDMA / GSM, which can see the attitude towards 3G network withdrawal.

At the press conference, Director Wen Ku also made it clear that "2G / 3G withdrawal is the inevitable choice for the upgrading of mobile communications". It can be predicted that driven by policy support and enterprise resource allocation demand, 2G / 3G network withdrawal will accelerate in the next few years. of course,Different operators present different paths in the choice of network withdrawal, including 2G and 3G.

Second, 1.2 billion connections are only one step away, and a reasonable structure is more important

The notice clearly puts forward the requirement that the number of mobile animal networking connections will reach 1.2 billion by the end of 2020.The author expects that there is not much suspense to achieve this goal.

According to the statistical bulletin of the communication industry in 2019, by the end of 2019, the number of mobile animal networking connections had exceeded 1.03 billion, while by the end of 2018, the number was 671 million. According to the statistical bulletin data of the communication industry over the years, the number of mobile animal networking connections has increased very fast in recent years.

Number of mobile Internet of things connections (unit: 100 million, source: Ministry of industry and information technology, Internet of things think tank)

According to the latest data, by the end of March 2020, the number of mobile Internet of things connections had reached 1078 million, an increase of 48 million in a quarter. According to this speed, it will be one step away to break through 1.2 billion by the end of the year. The "thing Superman" situation that the number of mobile Internet of things connections exceeds that of people will soon be realized.

However, most of the more than 1 billion mobile Internet of things devices are based on 2G network connections. In the context of 2G network withdrawal, this structure is not healthy. Therefore, in the development goal, the notice also clearly proposes to "establish a comprehensive ecosystem of mobile Internet of things with coordinated development of Nb IOT, 4G (including lte-cat1) and 5g". In my opinion,Compared with the number of connections, the goal of the distribution of Internet of things connection structure is more important. Accelerate the elimination of backward production capacity, support with the most advanced and mainstream technology, and form a multi-level and reasonable structure of Internet of things connection pattern from low speed to high speed and from high time delay to low time delay, so as to play the role of "new infrastructure" in supporting the digital transformation of various industries in the next decade.

One highlight is that the role of CAT1 is particularly emphasized in the notice.The industry agreed that in the next few years, Nb IOT 4G will become the mainstream in the Internet of things connection structure, while CAT1 accounts for the vast majority of 4G, and together with Nb IOT, it constitutes the main force of medium rate and low rate Internet of things connections. At present, the domestic CAT1 industrial ecology is also gradually improved. The chip manufacturer platforms represented by Ziguang zhanrui and ASR occupy the main share. Various module manufacturers have successively launched CAT1 modules, making CAT1 a hot spot of the Internet of things in 2020, and the module cost has also opened a channel of decline.

Third, guide new IOT terminals to no longer use 2G / 3G networks

How to accelerate the withdrawal of 2G / 3G network, and how to realize the connection pattern of Internet of things with multi-level and reasonable structure? The notice also gives relevant suggestions and key work directions. Among them, the typical measures are:While ensuring the network service level of existing IOT terminals, guide new IOT terminals not to use 2G / 3G networks, and promote the migration of existing 2G / 3G IOT services to NB IOT / 4G (CAT1) / 5G networks.

After more than ten years of evolution, despite the work of frequency reduction and de networking for many times, the scale of 2G / 3G network infrastructure is still very large. The following is the change data of the total number of 2G and 3G base stations in the past decade:

Total number of 2g 3g base stations in 2009-2019 (unit: 10000, source: Ministry of industry and information technology, Internet of things think tank)

By the end of 2019, there are still more than 2.8 million 2G and 3G base stations, carrying more than 300 million mobile phone users and hundreds of millions of Internet of things connections far higher than the number of mobile phone users.In the face of this huge infrastructure and user group, although 2G / 3G frequency reduction and de networking has been continuing, it is a long-term process.

This process has policy support, but it can not be completed by relying on administrative orders. It still needs to act according to the law of market economy.Director Wen Ku also proposed at the press conference: from the perspective of users, mobile network withdrawal can not be simply said to be withdrawn today, but the gate will be opened tomorrow, which is inappropriate. It is necessary to plan the network withdrawal in advance, and the mobile network withdrawal of operating enterprises should be planned and informed in advance.

In terms of the Internet of things, accelerating the migration of 2G Internet of things through market-oriented means is nothing more than an article from two aspects of stock and increment. For the demand of incremental Internet of things, it is necessary to ensure the provision of 2G alternative, which not only has technical advantages, but also needs to form an all-round advantage over 2G in terms of network quality, cost and industrial ecology; For the 2G Internet of things connection in stock, it needs to be promoted as soon as possible to accelerate and shorten its life cycle.

The measures proposed in the notice are based on the above two directions. In addition to the measures of "guiding new IOT terminals to no longer use 2G / 3G networks and promoting the migration of existing 2G / 3G IOT services to NB IOT / 4G (CAT1) / 5G networks", specific suggestions are also put forward in "improving the mobile IOT industrial chain", such as encouraging all localities to set up special support and innovation funds to support the R & D of Nb IOT and CAT1 special chips, modules, equipment and other products; Further reduce the cost of Nb IOT module and reduce it to the same level as 2G module in 2020; Increase the research and development of CAT1 chip and module, and promote the reduction of module cost.

Fourth, it is proposed to "build new NB IOT base stations as needed"

In the proposal for network construction in the notice, it is clearly proposed to "build new NB IOT base stations as needed". In my opinion,To a certain extent, this description reflects the idea of Nb IOT infrastructure construction in the short term, that is, it will not carry out large-scale network construction, but is demand-oriented, paying more attention to fine construction and in-depth coverage.Therefore, it can be predicted that the scale of Nb IOT base station will not increase significantly in the short term, but it is more supportable in supporting key projects and key applications.

At the 5g NB IOT billion journey summit held last month, Liu Yulin, deputy director of the information and Communication Department of the Ministry of industry and information technology, mentioned in his speech that by the end of last year, China had built more than 700000 NB IOT base stations, realizing continuous coverage in major cities and towns and above, laying a good network foundation for the development of various applications. These 700000 NB IOT base stations constitute the main body of Nb IOT wide coverage and infrastructure, and these 700000 base stations have also made operators pay tens of billions of investment. According to the 2019 annual report data of the three operators, the planned capital expenditure of the three manufacturers in 2020 is more than 330 billion, of which more than 180 billion is used for 5g investment, accounting for more than 50%. Under the background of increasing 5g investment demand and limited capital expenditure, it is unlikely to invest in NB IOT network on a large scale. Therefore, "building NB IOT base stations on demand" has become the main mode of Nb IOT network investment.

                           Planned investment of the three operators in 2020 (source: operator financial report)

However, Liu Yulin also stressed that the Nb IOT network coverage needs to be further improved. The Nb IOT network coverage level in some areas can not fully meet the requirements of carrying 2G connection migration, and the local coverage depth needs to be strengthened. The construction of human to human communication network mainly considers the areas with dense population and people's main activities. The information in these areas is relatively easy to obtain, and the network planning is based on this; However, the Internet of things network planning is more complex, and the emergence of many Internet of things application requirements is random, which further makes the planning difficult.Therefore, "on-demand construction" is a better way to solve these problems. Based on the clear demand, the construction of new NB IOT base stations can not only solve the problem of network planning, but also reduce the cost for operators.

Of course, there should be more innovative ways to build NB IOT on demand. For example, the pain point of many Internet of things projects is that there are blind areas in the network. A variety of flexible ways can be used to solve the blind areas, including the use of small stations and the integration of other communication technologies. The notice clearly proposes to support the development of mobile Internet of things network quality assessment and testing, and promote the network service quality to meet the needs of users. This measure has important reference significance for NB IOT on-demand construction. In addition, it is mentioned in the notice that: deep coverage is achieved for indoor, traffic network, underground pipe network, modern agricultural demonstration area and other application scenarios; Focus on network operation and maintenance, monitoring and optimization, and improve network service level. These measures and suggestions are to realize the further fine construction of Nb IOT.

While building the network on demand, it is also necessary to upgrade the existing network, upgrade the R13 site to R14, and greatly improve the network performance.The author suggests that the pilot of different network roaming of Nb IOT can also be considered. If it can be implemented on a large scale, the service scope of operators will be expanded to a great extent.

Fifth, pay attention to the deep integration with various vertical industries

The development of the industrial chain of the mobile Internet of things itself is only a means, and the purpose is to enable the digital transformation of various vertical industries. An obvious feature of the notice is that it attaches great importance to the integration of mobile Internet of things and various vertical industries.

In the work arrangement of standards and technology, the notice clearly proposes to formulate standards for the integration of mobile Internet of things and vertical industries, and promote the formulation and implementation of technical standards and interconnection standards for mobile Internet of things terminals and platforms for key fields such as smart home, smart agriculture, industrial manufacturing, energy meter, fire smoke detection, logistics tracking and financial payment, Improve the application standardization level of the industry. These industries listed are those in which the Internet of mobile animals has penetrated deeply in recent years. The time is gradually ripe to integrate mobile communication and Internet of things technologies into various vertical industry standards. For example, industries such as meter and smoke detector have written Internet of things related technologies into their industry standards.

In the safeguard measures, the notice mentioned: strengthen infrastructure planning, encourage all localities to comprehensively consider the needs of smart applications in the construction of infrastructure such as industrial (industrial) parks, smart cities, beautiful villages, urban roads and bridges, municipal pipe networks, comprehensive pipe corridors, transportation logistics and green landscape, and do a good job in the construction of mobile Internet of things related facilities or reserved space in advance. According to the definition of the new infrastructure by the national development and Reform Commission, these areas listed in the notice will form an "integrated infrastructure" after the in-depth application of the mobile Internet of things, which will also be included in the new infrastructure to provide more multipliers for economic and social development.

The above five points are the author's interpretation of the notice on further promoting the all-round development of the mobile Internet of things. Of course, there are many highlights in the notice that deserve attention, such as the development index model of the mobile Internet of things, support for mobile resale enterprises, the construction of security system, cloud management side-to-side collaboration, etc. due to the limitations of space and personal knowledge, they will not be interpreted one by one. I believe these aspects will also play a prominent role in the development of the Internet of mobile animals in the future.

This article is reproduced from“Internet of things think tank”, support the protection of intellectual property rights. Please indicate the original source and author for reprint. If there is infringement, please contact us to delete