With the accelerated integration of the new generation of information technology and traditional industries represented by the Internet, cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, etc., a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is booming around the world, and a series of new production methods and organizational methods are emerging and business models continue to emerge. In this context, the Industrial Internet, as a key foundation for intelligent manufacturing, emerged.
The Industrial Internet is a key network infrastructure that meets the needs of industrial intelligent development and features low latency, high reliability, and wide coverage. It is an emerging business format and application model formed by the deep integration of new generation information and communication technology and advanced manufacturing.
The development of industrial Internet comes at the right time
With the proposal of the economic development concept of “return to manufacturing” represented by the United States, the new industrial revolution with intelligent manufacturing as the core has become an important direction for the development of various countries. Developed countries and major economies have proposed strategies for manufacturing transformation and upgrading, vigorously Develop industrial intelligent manufacturing. The most representative ones are Germany’s “Industry 4.0” strategy and the United States’ “Advanced Manufacturing Nation” strategy.
Our country attaches great importance to the development of the industrial Internet. Since 2015, the country has issued a series of policy documents, including the “Guiding Opinions of the State Council on Actively Promoting the “Internet” Action” (Guofa [2015] No. 40), “The State Council on Deepening Manufacturing “Guiding Opinions on the Integrated Development of Industry and the Internet” (Guofa [2016] No. 28) and “Guiding Opinions of the State Council on Deepening “Internet Advanced Manufacturing” to Develop Industrial Internet”, etc., to encourage and promote the development and application promotion of industrial Internet in our country . In addition, in order to implement the policies of the State Council, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has successively issued documents and plans such as the “Industrial Internet Development Action Plan (2018~2020)”, “Industrial Internet Platform Construction and Promotion Guide”, “Industrial Internet Platform Evaluation Method” and other documents, actively Promote the development of industrial Internet in our country.
In order to accelerate the innovative development of the Industrial Internet, in February 2018, the National Leading Group for the Construction of a Manufacturing Power established a special working group for the Industrial Internet, with Minister of Industry and Information Technology Miao Wei as the group leader, Deputy Director of the National Development and Reform Commission Lin Nianxiu, and Vice Minister of Science and Technology Xu Chen Zhaoxiong, Vice Minister of Nanping, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and Liu Wei, Vice Minister of Finance, serve as deputy team leaders. Leaders of relevant ministries such as the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Transport, and the Ministry of Commerce serve as members of the Industrial Internet Special Working Group.
Under the guidance of various national policies, the informatization level of my country’s manufacturing industry has been greatly improved, and key industries have made significant progress in the digitalization, networking, and intelligence. According to statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in 2017, the penetration rate of digital R&D and design tools, the numerical control rate of key processes, the digitalization rate of production equipment, and the networking rate of digital equipment in industrial enterprises above designated size reached 63.3%, 46.4%, 44.8%, and 39% respectively, cultivating a With the emergence of a batch of industrial Internet platforms, the intelligence-dominated characteristics of the manufacturing industry have become increasingly obvious, and my country’s industrial Internet is booming.
Industrial ecosystem moves towards smart and efficient
A distinctive feature of the Industrial Internet is that by building a ubiquitous Internet, low-latency and high-reliability network, various equipment, materials, systems, workers in the factory, as well as products, warehousing, logistics, users and other supply chains outside the factory All links are connected together to achieve ubiquitous interconnection and smooth flow of data in all links, thereby forming an intelligent and efficient industrial ecosystem.
The network connection of the Industrial Internet is inseparable from various communication technologies. At present, the vast majority of communication technologies used in the industrial field are still wired technologies, including various dedicated industrial Ethernet technologies and fieldbus technologies; in some special industrial scenarios, wireless technology has become an alternative to wired technology due to its good mobility. Important addition. HMS, a Swedish industrial network company, released the 2018 global industrial network market share forecast report based on the statistics of global industrial network market share in 2017. The report shows that in 2018, the industrial Ethernet market share will account for 52% of the global industrial network market share, the fieldbus market share will be 42%, and the industrial wireless network will account for 6% of the entire market share.
Wireless technology is a revolutionary technology that reduces the cost of industrial measurement and control systems and expands the scope of applications. Transmitting information through wireless technology has the advantages of low cost, ease of use, and high flexibility. It is more suitable for applications in areas with high temperatures, high noise, and remote areas that are not suitable for manual operation. environment, which can greatly improve production efficiency. According to Emerson’s calculations, wireless technology can reduce equipment costs by 60%, reduce equipment management time by 65%, and save 95% of wiring space. Wireless technology is an important supplement to various industrial wired technologies and has become an important development direction for industrial Internet network connections.
Wireless technology promotes the development of industrial Internet
At present, wireless technologies used in industrial Internet applications can be generally divided into two categories:
One is short-distance communication technology . Short-distance communication technology is currently the most widely used wireless communication technology in the industrial field. It mainly includes traditional short-distance communication technologies such as WLAN, Bluetooth, and RFID, and industrial applications represented by WirelessHART, ZigBee, ISA100.11a, WIA-PA, etc. Dedicated short-range communication technology.
Micropower short-distance wireless transmitting equipment is generally used for one-way or two-way low-power short-distance communication. It has the characteristics of wide frequency coverage, wide range of use, and large number of devices. It also has the advantages of low price, flexible movement, and easy networking. , so it is widely used in many aspects of industrial production and manufacturing. As the automation level of industrial production and manufacturing continues to improve and the demand for intelligence continues to increase, the application of micropower short-distance wireless transmitting equipment in the industrial Internet will become more and more widespread.
The other category is wide area network communication technology. As the demand for various wireless communications in the industrial field continues to increase, cellular mobile communication technology and low-power wide area network technology based on cellular technology have also begun to be applied in the industrial field.
WAN communication technologies currently used in the industrial field include 2G/3G/4G cellular mobile communication technology, as well as low-power WAN technologies represented by NB-IoT, eMTC, Multefire, LoRa , etc. Low-power wide area network technology is an IoT communication technology that can achieve low bandwidth, low power consumption, long distance, and a large number of connections. Its biggest feature is that it can achieve long distance and low power consumption.
In addition, the fifth-generation mobile communication technology standard also plans two scenarios: low-power large connection (mMTC) and low-latency high reliability (URLLC), which are mainly for future large-scale Internet of Things and factory automation that are time-sensitive and highly demanding. Reliability requirements focus on solving the problem that traditional mobile communication technology cannot well support the Internet of Things and vertical industry applications. With the continuous advancement and development of 5G technology standards, the Industrial Internet can use 5G technology as a means of communication and connection. With the development wave of 5G technology, it can promote the wider application of wireless technology in the Industrial Internet.
The Industrial Internet is an important foundation for promoting the construction of a manufacturing power and a network power, and a strong support for building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way and building a powerful modern socialist country. In the future, with the development of factory informatization and intelligence, more and more industrial scenarios will require the use of wireless technology and wireless devices. The continuous development and progress of wireless technology will also further promote the development of the manufacturing industry and bring new impetus to the development of the industrial Internet.