5G speeds up, can the ubiquitous power Internet of Things find a balance between "security and cost"?

China Energy Storage Network News: 5G communication technology is the technological high point that Trump is trying hard to defend, and it is related to the technological battle that he calls "must win". On June 6, four 5G licenses were issued in advance in China, which accelerated the exploration of commercial scenarios supported by 5G in various circles, and the Internet of Things is regarded as the key battlefield where 5G can display its skills.

Technological evolution has led to an upgrade in demand. Under the wave of the Internet of Things, the ubiquitous power Internet of Things strategy, which aims to connect power users and their corresponding equipment, is naturally inseparable from the support of compatible communication technologies, and also cannot avoid forward-looking research based on 5G technology solutions.

To what extent will 5G networks be required to build the power Internet of Things in the blueprint?

This is a topic that has been frequently discussed and controversial in the industry recently. "I don't think there is such a great demand for 5G given the current data volume." Many people in the power industry have reservations about this. The existing 4G network can already meet many power Internet of Things functions, and 5G is not a necessary condition. A person in the communications industry simply stated publicly, "Only 1%-5% of Internet of Things applications are based on 5G or rely on 5G."

On the other hand, outside the public network, the State Grid Corporation of China has been planning for many years to build a 230Mhz power wireless private network for terminal communication access in the power distribution and utilization links. This is based on the communication technology of the transition from 4G to 5G (also known as 4.5G), and in August last year, it obtained approval from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology for wireless network dedicated frequency resources suitable for power grid enterprises and energy Internet construction. This also laid the communication foundation for the official launch of the ubiquitous power Internet of Things half a year later.

How important is it for State Grid Corporation of China to build a "terminal communication access network"? Sun Dedong, deputy general manager of State Grid Information and Communication Industry Group, mentioned in a public speech at North China Electric Power University in March that "the biggest bottleneck for us not having ubiquitous access is the access network."

The self-built "power communication network" is another "tangible" physical network asset for the power grid. After the strong smart grid construction phase, the power-specific backbone communication network laid with optical fiber has basically reached full coverage. However, in the 10kV and 0.4kV terminal communication access network link on the power distribution side, like all "last mile", it encounters the problem of massive terminal points, wide coverage, and huge investment, resulting in slow progress.

Today, the mature and popular 4G and 5G public networks in the testing stage, as well as the 230Mhz power wireless private network based on 4.5G, are all options for the terminal access network of power grid construction. It is a consensus to replace wired optical fiber with wireless network for access network layout, but wireless public network and wireless private network have both advantages and disadvantages.

In the context of the country's efforts to accelerate 5G beyond expectations, there are indeed many questions about how to combine and deploy wireless public and private networks, and whether private network bandwidth needs to be invested in advance to meet the explosion of IoT data. "There are indeed many confusions now, and the State Grid has not yet made a final decision."

The outside world's concerns are, first, whether the costs of new construction, renovation, leasing, operation and maintenance generated by the creation of the power Internet of Things will be included in the transmission and distribution pricing costs, thereby increasing the burden on electricity buyers; second, whether there will be a situation of "5G for the sake of 5G".

The second layer in the ubiquitous power Internet of Things architecture, namely the construction of the "access network" in the "network layer", how to find the balance point and effective boundary of "data security and investment cost" is a problem that the State Grid is considering solving.

A preliminary study on power applications under 5G public network

The concept of ubiquitous power Internet of Things first sparked widespread discussion during the two sessions in March 2019. The response pace in the communications field triggered by this was also extremely fast.

Two months later, at the second "Digital China" Construction Achievements Exhibition held in Fuzhou and the third "World Intelligence Conference" held in Tianjin, telecom operators and communication equipment manufacturers set up separate screens to talk about the application scenarios based on 5G communication technology in the field of "ubiquitous power Internet of Things".

Huawei and ZTE launched communication network solutions for the "ubiquitous power Internet of Things" and put forward the slogan "5G is an important option for ubiquitous connection of massive power distribution and consumption terminal equipment". Although the large-scale commercial use of 5G will take some time, the relevant technologies have yet to be verified and tested, and because it is in its infancy, there is still no clear standard for the relevant costs of 5G. However, the on-site staff told eo that they are willing to explore the implementation of 5G business scenarios with the power grid.

Joint research between the power and communications sectors has already begun. State Grid Corporation of China, China Telecom, and Huawei jointly compiled a report titled "5G Network Slicing Enables Smart Grid" and released it in January 2018. Last June, China Southern Power Grid, China Mobile, and Huawei jointly released a white paper titled "5G Assists Smart Grid Applications."

It is generally believed that high bandwidth, low latency and massive connections are the three major characteristics of 5G communication technology. At the same time, the application of 5G network slicing technology in vertical fields has also attracted much attention. In April this year, State Grid Nanjing Power Supply Company, China Telecom Jiangsu Company and Huawei jointly completed a power slicing test in a real power grid environment. This is also the first time in the world that a test based on the latest standard 5G SA network has been realized.

A ZTE insider told eo that "it would be too expensive to build a (5G) network," and that 5G network slicing technology could be used to lease the network. Leasing a slice means that the entire resource from the terminal to the network can be cut out for the user to use exclusively, "which is equivalent to a tunnel."

"This is a virtual private network." The ZTE person mentioned above said that for industries like the power industry that are particularly strict on security protection, through 5G slicing technology, users can enjoy 5G services without sharing the network with other users, and the cost is lower than building a dedicated communication network by themselves.

According to him, the role of converting fiber-optic wired networks to wireless is "first, cost savings, and second, shortening construction time." However, he also said that different network layout combinations should be made according to the business needs and investment budgets of different regions, and voice services may only be provided in remote areas. "How much better 5G is than 4G remains to be evaluated, but there will be scenario needs in the future."

Functions such as power distribution automation, precise load control, big data information collection, and distributed power supply control are recognized as potential scenarios for 5G applications in the power industry. Drone inspections of power transmission and transformation lines and the application of AR/VR in the power sector are also considered typical applications of 5G. However, these two businesses have already been developed before the 5G license was officially issued. In other words, communication technology does not directly affect the existence of the above two businesses, but it will guide the future iteration direction of the business.

For example, in the area of ​​UAV inspection of power transmission and transformation lines, existing cases mainly adopt the method of first storing data in memory and then reading data by staff later. Therefore, there are no strict requirements for the communication network, and ordinary wifi can meet the requirements. A R&D staff of a UAV inspection company told eo that the service they provide at this stage can even achieve real-time transmission of photos using only 1.4G network. If there is a demand for real-time video transmission in the future, 5G may be needed.

An AR/VR technology developer serving the power industry told eo that under the existing local area network, AR/VR can basically achieve zero latency locally, but this does not mean that more advanced requirements will not arise after 5G technology matures. "Currently, due to technical limitations, development is slow. First, there is a delay in remote control, and second, the recognition rate is not high enough. If there is a better and more mature technology, there will definitely be follow-up for function expansion."

He mentioned the significance of 5G for AR/VR in the "multiple people in different locations" scenario. For example, two provincial power companies need to share operations in real time. Since the long-distance transmission involved is sensitive to latency requirements, "if the delay is too long, remote transmission will be meaningless." If it is based on the transmission speed of 5G, the latency can theoretically be shortened from a few tenths of a second to a few tenths of a second.