Inventory of ICT hot technologies in 2019: Embracing the era of intelligent interconnection

The year 2019 is about to pass, and the ICT industry has been full of climaxes. Among them, 5G is undoubtedly a highlight: China's 5G is officially commercialized, which not only allows Chinese mobile communication users to take the lead in entering the 5G era, but also effectively promotes the end-to-end improvement of the 5G industry chain; the 5G era of the Internet of Everything is coming. In addition to 5G, blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) also entered the pragmatic promotion stage in 2019, and the software industry has become the "locomotive" of economic development... Looking back on this year, many links in the ICT industry have moved forward in parallel, laying the foundation for the future smart and connected world step by step.

5G: The industry chain is becoming more and more complete, and domestic mobile phones have become the leader

In 2019, the official opening of China's 5G commercialization sounded the "bugle" for the end-to-end maturity of China's 5G industry chain.

In terms of network technology, the networking mode has become a hot topic in the industry in 2019, and SA has become China's unwavering choice. In this regard, Wu Hequan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that because 5G needs to provide high reliability, low latency, and large connection characteristics, it cannot be done without independent networking. The clear direction has received widespread support from telecom operators: China Mobile insists on SA as the network target architecture to accelerate the construction of high-quality networks; China Telecom insists on SA direction to promote the healthy development of the global SA industry; China Unicom and Huawei recently opened the 5GSA commercial network data FirstCall, with an uplink rate of up to 300Mbps, which is 2.4 times the uplink rate of NSA.

In the terminal field, 5G mobile phones are accelerating their maturity, and domestic mobile phone brands have become the leaders. So far, the vast majority of 5G mobile phones on the market are domestic mobile phone brands. Among them, Huawei has launched four 5G mobile phones, covering the needs of mid-to-high-end users; Xiaomi has launched the lowest-priced 5G mobile phone at present, which is only 1,999 yuan; in addition, vivo, OPPO, Lenovo, etc. have also launched flagship 5G mobile phones. It is particularly noteworthy that in the field of 5GSoC chips, rapid progress has been made in the second half of the year. Huawei, Samsung, MediaTek, and Qualcomm have released their own SoC solutions and quickly applied them to 5G mobile phones, effectively reducing the price of 5G mobile phones.

In the application field, for individual consumers, 5G's high speed and low latency characteristics have brought people a new application experience and accelerated the implementation of applications such as VR/AR and artificial intelligence; for vertical industries, 5G has effectively driven the pace of digital transformation, and the scenes that were imagined in the past are becoming a reality. For example, unmanned mining trucks not only greatly reduce costs, but also bring safer work sites. (Yao Ge)

Internet of Things: NB-IoT is a worthy candidate for 5G standard

At the ITU-RWP5D#32 meeting held in Buzios, Brazil in July 2019, my country completed the complete submission of the IMT-2020 (5G) candidate technology plan and obtained the ITU's official acceptance confirmation letter for the 5G candidate technology plan.

It is worth noting that the 5G technical solution submitted by my country clearly points out that China's 5G wireless air interface technology (RIT) solution is based on 3GPP new air interface (NR) and mobile Internet of Things (NB-IoT) technology. Among them, NR focuses on meeting the technical requirements of enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) and ultra-reliable low latency (uRLLC) scenarios, and NB-IoT meets the technical requirements of massive machine type connection (mMTC) scenarios.

In fact, before this, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Notice on Comprehensively Promoting the Construction and Development of Mobile Internet of Things (NB-IoT)", which reflects my country's high attention and active promotion of the NB-IoT industry. The inclusion of NB-IoT in the 5G candidate technology solutions submitted by my country means that the attention of the domestic industry chain to NB-IoT has risen to the level of national will, which will help the NB-IoT industry continue to take off in the 5G era.

In fact, NB-IoT has been called Pre5G since its birth. In the 5G standardization work, there are two key organizations: ITU-R and 3GPP. ITU-R is an organization under the management of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) that specializes in formulating international standards related to radio communications; 3GPP is a standardization organization that formulates globally applicable technical specifications and technical reports for mobile communication systems. The vision and requirements of 5G are proposed by ITU-R, and 3GPP organizes major global manufacturers to promote the formulation of standards and specifications to meet the KPIs proposed by ITU, and finally adopted by ITU as international standards. Although the final 5G technical solution will be officially announced at the ITU's WP5D#35 conference (estimated time is June 2020), NB-IoT has fulfilled the necessary procedures to become a 5G technical solution. The industry has also recognized NB-IoT as a component of 5G.

From the perspective of market and industry development rules, resource investment, etc., NB-IoT is the best technology choice in the current market. NB-IoT is a candidate for the 5G standard, which gives vertical industries the confidence to adopt 3GPP technologies with sustainable evolution and upgrades, and can meet the future development needs of the industry market to deepen deployment and optimize performance. At present, in terms of network deployment, China Telecom has built the world's largest NB-IoT network, making great contributions to promoting the commercialization and industrialization of NB-IoT. (Da Yong)

Optical communications: Amidst the changing situation, collective efforts are being made in the submarine cable market

When the optical communication market encountered a "cold winter" in 2019, domestic optical communication giants strengthened their confidence and planned ways to break the impasse, while challenging the top of the optoelectronic transmission pyramid.

This year has been a rather turbulent year for the optical communications industry. This year, leading international operators, including Chinese companies, have announced the commercial use of 5G, but companies such as Changfei and Hengtong, which use optical communications as their main business segment, have faced a decline in both revenue and profit.

Industry experts analyzed that there are two reasons for the downturn in the optical communication market in 2019. On the one hand, the construction of my country's fiber-optic broadband access network and 4G mobile communication base stations was basically completed at the end of 2018, and the coverage rate of administrative village fiber-optic and 4G networks exceeded 98%. On the other hand, the initial construction of 5G commercial networks was not in-depth, and operators did not have a strong demand for optical fiber and cable, resulting in an oversupply of optical fiber and cable and a decline in optical fiber and cable prices.

Firmly believing that the storm is only temporary, the industry is still full of confidence in the future development of the optical communications industry. The industry generally believes that with the deepening of 5G and data center construction, the demand for optical fiber and cable will increase significantly, and optical communications will surely usher in favorable development. This year, optical communications companies such as Hengtong and FiberHome are preparing to enter the submarine cable market.

On November 18, China Information and Communications Technology Fiberhome Marine Industry Base was completed in Zhuhai Economic and Technological Development Zone (Gaolan Port Economic Zone), and it was announced that the base has the capacity to produce 10,000 kilometers of submarine optical cables and supporting system equipment annually; on December 12, Hengtong Optic-Electric's proposed acquisition of 51% of Huawei Marine's equity for 1 billion yuan was unconditionally approved by the China Securities Regulatory Commission, and Hengtong Optic-Electric officially acquired 51% of Huawei Marine's shares.

With the deepening of the "Belt and Road" initiative and the rapid rise of new technologies such as cloud computing and big data, the construction of international submarine cable projects will usher in explosive growth. Submarine optical cables have high technical requirements and are difficult to construct and maintain. They have always been regarded by the industry as the top of the pyramid of optoelectronic transmission. Previously, the optical cable industry has always been divided into three parts, with the total market share of the three companies, SubCom of the United States, NEC of Japan, and Alcatel-Lucent of Europe, accounting for 90% of the total market.

This time, domestic optical communication companies have entered the submarine cable market. In addition to expanding their market share and exploring new profit growth points, they can also make up for the shortcomings of the domestic submarine cable industry and move towards new technological heights.

(Wang Xin)

Blockchain: The market returns to rationality and applications are promoted pragmatically

In 2019, the blockchain industry entered a rational development stage, with technology returning to its essence, applications being pragmatically advanced, and scenarios constantly enriched.