Popular Science Article: Tell you what "intelligent connection" is

After four decades of rapid development, today's human communication technology is at an unprecedented peak. Communication connection technologies represented by 5G and Wi-Fi 6, while further meeting the needs of human Internet applications, are gradually exploring more and more IoT application scenarios, thereby driving the entire society towards the era of "Internet of Everything".

Human society is gradually moving from "no connection" and "weak connection" to "smart connection". The scale of global network connections is no longer limited to the total population of the world, but to the vast majority of things in the world. According to GSMA's forecast, by 2025, the number of devices connected to 5G networks and connected will reach 25 billion. IDC even believes that the total number of IoT devices in the world will reach 41.6 billion in 2025. Faced with such a huge scale of connections, we can't help but wonder:

Quantitative changes usually lead to qualitative changes. What kind of demands will future connection scenarios put forward?

Can our existing connection technology meet future connection needs?

We connect not for the sake of connection, but for the sake of value. So, how does connection create value?

Recently, a new term has become popular in the industry, which provides its own answer to the above questions: "intelligent connection".

What is Smart Connectivity

At first glance, the term “intelligent connectivity” may not seem strange. “Intelligence” and “connectivity” are concepts we are all familiar with.

When it comes to intelligence, AI comes to mind first. Over the years, as the hottest cutting-edge technology, AI has long been known to people.

Connection is actually a more advanced form of "connection". Connection is just a connection, and connection emphasizes union and combination on the basis of connection to form a whole. Whether it is connection or connection, the essence is communication.

So, is smart connectivity simply “AI + communication”?

of course not.

In fact, intelligent connectivity is a very macro concept. It is not a specific technology, but a complete set of solutions for all scenarios.

Intelligent connection does not exist independently. It, together with intelligent interaction, intelligent hub and intelligent application, constitutes the intelligent entity.

The intelligent entity mentioned here is a brand new concept. It is an intelligent upgrade reference architecture, mainly for government and enterprise users. For example, in an intelligent manufacturing automobile factory, all IT, CT and OT systems around its business model and business processes together constitute an intelligent entity in the industrial field.

It can also be seen from the intelligent agent architecture diagram below that the intelligent agent is an integrated intelligent system that collaborates with the cloud, network, edge and end.

If we compare an intelligent body to a human body, then the intelligent center is the brain and intelligent interaction is the limbs. The intelligent center is the most important and plays a decision-making role, involving technologies such as cloud computing and big data. It emphasizes computing power.

Intelligent connection is the trunk that supports the entire intelligent body. It essentially plays a connecting role, mainly involving communication technology and emphasizing connection power.

The role of intelligent connection can be summarized into three aspects:

First, it supports the connection within the intelligent hub, such as the interconnection between AI cluster servers and between cloud data centers.

The second is to support the connection between the intelligent hub and the intelligent interactive device, that is, the connection between the cloud, edge and terminal;

The third is to support the connection between intelligent interactive devices, such as the interconnection between AI cameras, 4K drones, industrial robotic arms and other equipment terminals.

Intelligent connection serves intelligent entities, and intelligent entities have five demands for intelligent connection: high reliability, lossless 0 packet loss, differentiated services, real-time large bandwidth and intelligent operation and maintenance.

The other four are relatively easy to understand. What is differentiated service? Differentiated service means providing different network features for different application scenarios. For example, for the Internet of Vehicles, the network can provide lower latency, for video on demand, the network can provide greater bandwidth, and so on. The network slicing we often talk about is to provide differentiated services.

The proponents of the concept of intelligent entities believe that intelligent connectivity should have three basic characteristics:

The first is ubiquitous gigabit, which means gigabit connectivity that is ubiquitous and seamlessly covered. Bandwidth is the first element of connectivity. Now, industry applications such as VR/AR industrial inspection, 4K/8K ultra-high-definition video live broadcast, and AI smart cameras all rely on gigabit bandwidth.

Then there is the deterministic experience, which is the ultra-high reliability of system operation and the ultra-high stability of performance indicators such as latency. I can tolerate your latency not being extremely low, but there cannot be jitter, sometimes 1ms, sometimes 100ms, like this. Representative scenarios are high-speed rail, airports, power, etc.

Finally, there is hyperautomation. The explosive growth of connection scale means the growth of network scale and the increase of network complexity. The difficulty of network operation and maintenance will exceed the limit of manual operation and maintenance. Therefore, the introduction of AI and the realization of intelligent operation and maintenance is the general trend.

Key technologies for intelligent connectivity

How can intelligent connection have the above three basic characteristics? What specific technical means need to be introduced to achieve the super strong connection of intelligent connection?

In fact, as mentioned earlier, smart connectivity is a full-scenario solution rather than a new technical standard.

The foundation of intelligent connectivity is still the current technical framework of mobile communications and fixed-line communications. What intelligent connectivity 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 made secondary innovations based on existing technologies, improved indicators, simplified solutions, improved experience, and facilitated users.

I believe everyone has guessed that the first technical foundation of intelligent connectivity is the 5G that is currently in full swing.

Based on the existing 5G general performance indicators, Smart Connectivity has added three important improvements: Gbps uplink, 20ms low latency, and sub-meter positioning.

We know that 5G currently has Gbps downlink capability, but the uplink is insufficient. For video backhaul scenarios, uplink is a rigid requirement. Smart Connect introduces Super Uplink SUL technology to achieve Gbps uplink rate.

The 20ms low latency relies on the introduction of features such as pre-scheduling and mini-slot, and mainly serves remote control scenarios.

The realization of sub-meter positioning capabilities 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 technological foundation is F5G, which has developed rapidly this year, namely the 5th generation Fixed networks.

Nowadays, people generally refer to traditional 5G as “5G network in the sky” and F5G as “5G network on the ground”. The core of F5G is all-optical network, and its vision is “Fibre to Everywhere”.

The representative technologies of F5G are 10G PON (fiber-optic broadband access with user rates reaching Gbps), Wi-Fi 6, 200G/400G, OXC (all-optical cross-connect), NG OTN (next-generation optical transport network), etc.

F5G's all-optical network is actually the basic bearer network for mobile 5G data transmission, providing support for mobile 5G in terms of bandwidth, latency and stability.

F5G and 5G share some common technologies and networks. In many application scenarios, F5G has more advantages than 5G.

F5G's low latency, large bandwidth, multiple connections, and anti-interference characteristics are more in line with the connection demands of those without mobility requirements. Moreover, F5G has lower power consumption, which is beneficial to protecting the environment and reducing costs.

In other words, whether it is 5G or F5G, they are both technical means, and there is no distinction between good and bad, or 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, intelligent connectivity also includes intelligent IP networks for campuses, wide areas, and data centers, as well as IPv6+.

Why do we need to emphasize IPv6+? Because the introduction of IPv6+ can achieve one-hop direct access to smart interactive devices and cross-domain content access. For example, remote access to camera data, etc. IPv6+ is the premise of "all-intelligence interconnection". Without IPv6+, it is not enough to achieve smart connection.

How should we understand the intelligence of intelligent connection?

Of course, it is the introduction of AI.

Intelligent connectivity introduces AI, which mainly includes three levels: network elements, network and cloud.

NE + AI: Introduce AI into NEs and upgrade them to digital intelligent NEs, so that each NE and the entire network can perceive, process, and reason more acutely.

Network + AI: Use AI to reconstruct network management, build a digital twin of the network through an intelligent management and control system, and achieve dynamic control and closed-loop control of the network, such as automatic deployment, pre-simulation, post-verification, preventive prediction, and proactive optimization.

Cloud + AI: Provide network AI training and model services on the cloud, and continuously upgrade the software systems and AI models already installed on devices and networks to obtain more autonomous driving capabilities, making the entire network smarter with use.

The value of intelligent connectivity

Finally, let’s look at the most important question, which is the question of value. How does intelligent connectivity create value?

Will connectivity create value? I don’t think this question needs to be answered. You can look at your mobile phone and imagine what your work and life would be like without a mobile phone, without a network, or without broadband at home or in the office.

Modern humans are increasingly dependent on 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 dividends of digitalization.

Smart connectivity and the intelligent entities behind it are undoubtedly the best way for industry enterprises to embrace industry Internet.

Let’s take a few simple examples.

First, let’s take a look at industrial Internet scenarios such as smart manufacturing.

Intelligent connection provides end-to-end ultra-low latency capabilities. Industrial robotic arms connected through ultra-wide fixed optical fiber have higher response speed and accuracy, are suitable for more operating scenarios, and improve factory production efficiency.

The ultra-large bandwidth capabilities provided by smart connections help workers conduct remote equipment inspections through Wi-Fi 6 or 5G wireless VR glasses, which also improves efficiency.

The ultra-large uplink bandwidth of smart connection can transmit the massive high-definition inspection photos collected by the inspection camera (through ultra-wide fixed network access) back to the cloud, and use AI technology to compare defects, greatly improving the inspection efficiency. With the help of IPv6 + technology, the above-mentioned robotic arms, VR glasses and inspection cameras can all achieve remote one-hop access, and operators and management and maintenance personnel can directly connect to the equipment across domains.

In the field of telemedicine, intelligent connectivity can enable remote treatment. Ultra-high reliability and deterministic latency allow doctors to confidently perform remote surgery, saving precious treatment time and reducing costs.

In remote mining scenarios, the mine environment is complex and there are many interference obstacles. The use of ultra-wide fixed network access can perfectly realize the remote control of mining equipment, and can also monitor various environmental parameters and video images in the mine and transmit them back.

The current popular autonomous driving is inseparable from the ultra-large bandwidth, ultra-low latency and ultra-high reliability of intelligent connection. The popularization of autonomous driving means the release of driver resources, the improvement of transportation efficiency and the reduction of transportation costs in the freight field.

In addition to driverless cars, drones and unmanned ships will also be widely used, which will also change the industry's business model and generate greater commercial value.

In the next few days, at the 2020 Global Ultra-Broadband Forum (UBBF), I believe that more solutions for smart connectivity will be proposed.

In short, the changes brought about by intelligent connectivity are disruptive. Connectivity is productivity, and the leap in connectivity is the leap in productivity. As intelligent connectivity continues to become more popular, the value multiplier effect it brings will become more and more obvious, and we will also accelerate our entry into the true intelligent era.