Reviewing the upgrade of China's Internet of Things in 2017

As the connection between people is gradually saturated, the connection between things and things has become the focus of attention in the communications industry and even the entire industry. Driven by the efforts of all parties, 2017 became the first year of the development of the Internet of Things. This year, the Internet of Things has made great progress under the guidance of policies and industry. Not only the number of NB-IoT base stations of the three major operators has grown rapidly, but the price of NB-IoT chips and modules has also dropped significantly.

In addition to the rapid development of low-rate IoT represented by NB-IoT, medium-rate IoT technologies such as eMTC have also made great progress. In 2017, operators also conducted active network and laboratory testing for eMTC, and some operators announced that they will commercial eMTC in 2018. With the gradual deployment of high, medium and low-rate IoT, the application of all aspects of the Internet of Things will be launched soon, and 2017 has an important milestone for the development of the Internet of Things.

The three major operators fully carry out network construction

In 2017, China has comprehensively promoted the development of the Internet of Things in action. At the policy level, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued several articles to promote the development of NB-IoT. On June 5, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a document stating that the three major operators are allowed to deploy the NB-IoT system on the allocated IMT system frequency band of GSM or FDD mode. On June 16, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a notice stating that it is hoped that by the end of 2017, NB will be realized. - The size of the IoT base station reached 400,000. By 2020, the number of NB-IoT base stations will reach 1.5 million. At the same time, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology expressed the hope that operators will strengthen the capacity building of the Internet of Things platform, support massive terminal access, and enhance the ability to operate big data. On August 7, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also announced the "Telecommunication Network Code Number Resource Use Certificate", which divided the Internet of Things number segments for the three major operators. With the support of the policy, operators have fully carried out the construction of the Internet of Things network. Judging from the current construction of the Internet of Things, the three major operators have delivered perfect answers.

China Telecom took the lead and NB-IoT base station upgrade work was rapidly deployed. On May 17, it announced the completion of the upgrade of the entire network of 310,000 NB-IoT base stations, and built the world's first most widely covered NB-IoT network, based on 800MHz low-band bearer. Network quality is more stable. Subsequently, China Telecom also announced the first connection-based IoT package to promote the development of the Internet of Things industry. China Telecom has also established its own connection management platform and business enablement platform, and established the Tianyi IOT Industry Alliance. The number of partners has expanded to more than 150. China Telecom announced that it has launched eMTC testing and will implement eMTC commercial in 2018.

Under the “Dongfeng” policy, China Mobile has launched a comprehensive NB-IoT network construction. August 3, China Mobile announced that invested 39.5 billion yuan cellular network engineering wireless and core network equipment design and procurement feasibility study, followed by a 31 provincial cellular wireless Things master centralized purchasing, procurement quantity is about 140 000 . At the same time, China Mobile has also built the OneNET platform, released the current world's smallest eSIMNB-IoT communication module M5310, and established the China Mobile Internet of Things Alliance to fully develop the Internet of Things.

China Unicom is also a pioneer in the field of Internet of Things. It is actively conducting the pilot project of the Internet of Things and launching trial commercial deployment. The scale of pilot cities in Shanghai has reached more than 1,000 stations, and the continuous coverage of the main urban area has been basically achieved. As of November, China Unicom's cellular mobile network connection has exceeded 70 million. China Unicom's NB-IoT network has upgraded conditions nationwide and has begun to upgrade. China Unicom also deployed Jasper, the world's leading Internet of Things platform, and built an open ecosystem. In addition to NB-IoT, China Unicom has also launched multi-city eMTC experiments this year, and has completed laboratory testing. It is expected to be commercialized in 2018.

Chip and module manufacturers fully keep up

When the network is ready, the R&D work of the industry chain partners needs to keep up with it, and the Internet of Things industry can truly prosper. At present, the development of NB-IoT chips and modules is progressing rapidly. The industrial chain manufacturers in the Internet of Things industry are springing up and spreading all kinds of applications in various industries.

In terms of chips, domestic and foreign chip giants including Huawei, MediaTek and Qualcomm have made tremendous efforts. In 2016, Qualcomm has launched the multimode multi-frequency modem MDM9206, and conducted multi-mode field test with China Mobile and the shared bicycle company Mobai; Huawei Hisilicon launched the NB-IoT chip Boudica120, and also owns the Internet of Things operating system LiteOS; MediaTek Also introduced NB-IoT system single-chip (SoC) MT2625, and achieve single card dual standby, support NB-IoT and GSM / GPRS two network modes; Spreadtrum for smart home, smart home, intelligent voice interaction, etc. The power chip is also used by the Baidu DuerOS platform. And Intel, Samsung and other companies have also developed their own IoT chips.

At the same time, module manufacturers have developed a variety of IoT modules for different IoT applications. Currently, the industry is fragmented, but mainly focuses on the following categories, such as smart street lights, smart meter reading, smart parking, smart security, and smoke. Sensing detection, manhole cover monitoring, white goods, shared bicycles, air detection, smart home, smart manufacturing and energy monitoring. The current high price of the module is still an obstacle to the large-scale application of the Internet of Things. Previously, with the efforts of China Telecom and module manufacturers, the module price has dropped to 5 US dollars, and the future module price is expected to decline further. With the efforts of the industry, the Internet of Things industry will be fully prosperous.