As the product of the deep integration of the industrial system and the Internet system under the digital wave, the industrial Internet is the key support for a new round of industrial revolution, and the integrated development of “5G + industrial Internet” has also become the focus direction of the whole industry.
2019 is the first year of 5G commercialization in China, and China has officially entered the fifth generation of mobile communication era.5G is the key enabling technology for the development of the industrial Internet, and the industrial Internet also opens up a broad space for 5G application, “5G + industrial Internet” has become the highest industrial enthusiasm, the most active innovation of the 5G application field, also the path of in-depth exploration, significant effect of the industrial Internet innovation and development direction.
In November 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the “5G + Industrial Internet” 512 Project Promotion Plan, clarifying that by 2022, a number of 5G key technologies for the specific needs of the industrial Internet will be broken through. The “512” project is to complete 12 key industrial Internet projects in 5 categories, and strive to promote the integration and innovation of 5G and industrial Internet.
Driven by the policy, China’s “5G + industrial Internet” has enjoyed a good momentum of development, and has achieved remarkable results in standard formulation, technology research and development, and industrial integration and application.
“5G + Industrial Internet” is accelerating to empower thousands of industries, covering 41 categories of the national economy, involving digital research and development, intelligent manufacturing, network collaboration, personalized customization, service extension, and lean management. By August 2022, more than 3,100 projects had been launched across the country, covering more than 20 key industries such as steel, electric power, mining, petrochemical, and textile. The “5G + industrial Internet” has entried in industrial bases, industrial parks, and key industries has continued to accelerate, and the industrial scale has passed the one trillion yuan mark.
However, there are still some problems and challenges in the application of “5G + industrial Internet”, which are mainly summarized as the following three points:
First, the internal demand of enterprises is insufficient, and the large-scale application of “5G + industrial Internet” is great resistance. Although China’s “5G + industrial Internet” application cases are gradually increasing, but mostly for the benchmarking projects of the industry. Driven by the high subsidy policy, some enterprises even package the traditional information projects and automation projects, which is not really the “5G + industrial Internet” project derived from the domestic demand of enterprises. Therefore, the development of “5G + industrial Internet” is likely to soon enter the platform period, and it needs to be broken through.
Second, multiple factors such as technology reliability and security make it difficult to deeply integrate 5G with some industrial applications. From the above typical application scenarios, “5G + industrial Internet” has involved a number of links from research and development and design, production control to operation and maintenance, and also gradually cut from the peripheral auxiliary production link to the core production link. However, the chemical industry and electric power industries have high requirements for the safety and stability of the production process, and the stability and reliability of the 5G network and the accuracy and security of the precipitation model of the industrial Internet platform have not been verified by large-scale commercial implementation, so enterprises do not dare to replace the existing network and industrial mechanism with “5G + industrial Internet” technology.
Third, small and medium-sized enterprises still have concerns about the application of new technologies, which makes it difficult to fully promote the application. At present, the leading enterprises in the industry actively embrace the “5G + industrial Internet”, and realize the digital transformation by building platforms, gathering data, building applications, and expanding the ecology. However, small and medium-sized enterprises accept the application of new technologies is limited, mainly because the construction cost is high, and better economic benefits cannot be obtained in a short period of time. Therefore, only a small number of enterprises have carried out intelligent transformation at a single point or in a small part, and relatively few enterprises have carried out large-scale infrastructure construction such as 5G networks and industrial Internet platforms.
Facing the future, with the continuous evolution of 5G standards, the continuous upgrading of 5G capabilities, the continuous improvement and improvement of the industry ecology, as well as the continuous deepening of the application in the field of industrial Internet, “5G + industrial Internet” will be from benchmark enterprises to scale replication, bringing more possibilities for the digital innovation of thousands of industries.
