Hu Zhenping, Unicom Institute of Internet of Things: New Development of Internet of Things + Blockchain

Source: Universal Blockchain

Editor's Note: The original title is "[The 10th phase of the Wanxiang Block Chain Hive Academy] Hu Zhenping: The New Development of the Internet of Things + Blockchain"

This article is Hu Zhenping, General Manager of Consumer Application Development Department of Unicom Internet of Things Research Institute, at the 10th (October 25th) event of Wanxiang Block Chain Hive Academy, “The New Development of Internet of Things + Blockchain” Leading the new development of the Internet of Things.

The following content is organized according to Hu Zhenping's live speech:

• Hodling VS DeFi: What is the best posture for investment?
• Research Report | Blockchain in Global Trade: Revitalizing International Business in the Digital Age
• How Blockchain Improves Real-Time Accounting and Credit Risk Modeling

(Hu Zhenping is speaking)

Dear friends, good afternoon! I am Hu Zhenping, from China Unicom Internet of Things Research Institute. I am very honored to share with you some of China Unicom's work in the field of Internet of Things and blockchain.

Overall, the Internet of Things currently believes that there are three phases:

1, the perception of all things. It is a basic premise that the sensor senses an object or an instruction and simply processes the sensory information.

2. Everything is connected. Objects are interconnected with objects, and there is a simple interaction between objects.

3, all things wisdom. Not only simple linkages between devices, but also the ability to think and process information.

In the past few years, the Internet of Things has developed very rapidly. Since 2017, China's Internet of Things has developed rapidly. It is estimated that the market will reach 1.1 trillion by 2025. The Internet of Things has a lot of room for development. However, the rapid development of the Internet of Things does not originate from itself, but the product of the integration of various intelligent technologies.

IoT+5G

5G has three important scenarios. First, in terms of the number of connections, 4G can connect up to 100,000 devices in one square kilometer. If it exceeds, it will cause congestion in the cell, and 5G can link 1 million devices in one square kilometer. Secondly, in the delay, about 10 milliseconds in the 4G era, 5G can reach 1 millisecond. 5G's large connections and low latency will bring a big outbreak to the Internet of Things. In addition, in terms of bandwidth, the large bandwidth of 5G makes it possible to wear VR glasses daily.

When the Internet of Things is combined with 5G, it will create new imagination. Coupled with the blessing of big data, the industry will have a big change.

Unicom's Internet of Things is integrating new skills, new capabilities, and new scenarios brought about by 5G with traditional industries to try out new models and explore in-depth business models and technologies. For example, in the area of ​​Internet of Vehicles, Unicom Internet of Things demonstrated (automatic driving using 5G related technology) at the World Internet of Things Expo in Wuxi; it is still in the laboratory stage, and the follow-up will continue to develop. It is conceivable that in the direction of smart cities and industrial manufacturing, there will be much to be done.

IoT+AI

There are three elements to the development of AI. First, a large amount of data; a large amount of data is the basis of AI learning. Second, strong computing power. Third, high quality algorithms. Only on the basis of the combination of the three elements, AI can truly realize its value.

The Internet of Things provides two aspects of help for AI. First, provide a lot of data. AI requires a lot of data to support learning and computing. The Internet of Things can meet this need, and can provide a large number of sensor-aware raw data for AI learning and analysis. Second, provide the ability to land. That is, after discovering the law through techniques such as machine learning, the corresponding operations can be matched according to the corresponding scenes to realize various types of intelligent applications with intelligence.

IoT+ blockchain

The blockchain and the Internet of Things will first solve the digital authentication problem of the device, which will identify the device. Each device can establish identity on the blockchain to implement device data assetization. After the sensor data is placed in the blockchain, because of the trustworthy, traceable, and non-tamperable nature of the blockchain, the data is valuable and thus has the basic ability to asset.

Unicom's planning in the 5G era

Focus on the platform, integrate the industrial resources in various fields through platform + ecology, and promote the rapid expansion of the value of the Internet of Things. Unicom has released a brand new "5G ^{n "} brand this year, and its corresponding meaning is "to make the future grow." In the era of China Unicom's Internet of Things, the platform is the core and foundation, forming the ecosystem of China Unicom's Internet of Things, integrating the network and related applications. The platform includes basic cloud computing virtualization and storage capabilities, as well as cellular connectivity and device connectivity, as well as public service capabilities.

The device layer and the application layer are combined to form a large platform. There are blockchains on the platform, there are IoT devices, and there are applications for them. The chain is formed through the platform. At the same time, the platform is also open, and more platforms will be introduced to join the big ecology. To achieve the decoupling of the Internet of Things, developers of the application layer do not care who manufactures the device. It is similar to the one who does not care about the device communication module when doing development, China Unicom, Telecom, or mobile? All communication protocols are irrelevant to you, just pay attention to how the application is implemented. Developers of the application layer only need to pay attention to the characteristics of the device. In general, what Unicom's Internet of Things wants to do is to empower the industry with everyone.

The cloud node of China Unicom's Internet of Things uses the central operating system of M+1+N. “M” is the group-level strategy/core base; “1” provincial DC (provincial/key city), and each province has a data center. “N” refers to the integration of integrated service bearer nodes to form a large cloud computing center system.

At present, China Unicom's Internet of Things has 12 national data centers across the country, covering 335 points across the country, with an area of ​​more than 2 million square meters, 320,000 base stations and 60T bandwidth. The cloud is currently making a new attempt to "cloud networking", integrating different cloud platforms (Wo Yun, Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud, etc.). Through cloud networking, unified management and management of resources can be realized. From a network perspective, 5G has been piloted on a large scale across the country. Unicom's IoT adopts a 5G network deployment strategy and adopts a 7+33+N solution. 7,7 megacities cover 5G in total, mainly in the north, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Xiong'an; 33, 33 cities in the hotspots, such as railway stations, schools, stadiums. N, N industry applications, 5G network according to industry characteristics.

At the platform level, in addition to the basic functions, there is an important platform called the connection management platform, which mainly implements a full lifecycle management for all device connections. After the device is equipped with a SIM card, it can be automatically controlled for life cycle; for example, when the device uses a flow exceeding 10M, it will automatically switch to another state; for example, when the device leaves an area, the automatic communication capability disappears. In addition, the platform can also realize that when the traffic reaches a certain level or a certain state, it will automatically notify you, notify our application layer, and respond and process accordingly. The platform also provides comprehensive security protection and full deployment. The SIM card supports roaming in multiple countries around the world, so there is no need to have a card in each place, and because the cellular connection is supported, the device can be managed on the platform.

At the device management level, the platform manages the equipment very comprehensively. The biggest problem with the Internet of Things is that the fragmentation problem is more serious. What is fragmentation? Any field development needs to integrate resources from end to end and end to end. Traditional Internet applications because mobile communication modes are the same (mobile Internet communication), no need to consider many types of equipment, operating systems, protocols, etc., but in the Internet of Things era is different, every application on the Internet of Things must be considered What kind of protocol is adopted, what kind of module is used, what kind of sensing mode, what kind of response mechanism, and what kind of product form are different.

Unicom's IoT device management capabilities enable unified management of all devices, including node devices and virtualized platform devices. At the same time, the application layer only needs to operate on the platform virtual device, and it will be automatically mapped to the physical device. Similarly, for device developers at the device level, they can access the platform easily through a set of tools provided by the Unicom IoT. With such a test data, a smart home device can take virtually two days to a week to virtualize common devices from the network end to the cloud platform, thereby integrating the upstream and downstream resources of the industry through platform capabilities.

At the ecological level, China Unicom's Internet of Things has been building the concept of a smart ecosystem, mainly from the following perspectives.

First, there are five types of resources within the ecology: manpower, technology, markets, capital, and experts. Five types of resources carry out ecological cooperation through multiple dimensions. For example, the joint incubator laboratory of the Internet of Things, the Joint Innovation Center, and the Acceleration Center.

Second, build an alliance system. The China Unicom Internet of Things Industry Alliance is the mainstay, and the integration of industry associations and industry regional alliances will eventually form an alliance system.

Finally, through the integration of multiple parties to form a large ecological alliance, the alliance as the main body, gathering resources of all parties to form a large ecosystem and resource pool. Funding resources, development resources, incubators and other resources are open to the platform.

Case Studies

First, a second-hand car residual value estimation solution based on blockchain and privacy protection.

In recent years, the development of the Chinese automobile market has been very rapid, especially for new energy vehicles. According to market data, in 2015 China has become the world's largest country in terms of new energy vehicle ownership. Last year, the sales volume of new energy vehicles in the country was about 1.2 million, accounting for about 53% of the global market. With the expansion of the automobile market, the used car market has gradually developed.

In the case of electric vehicles and new energy vehicles, there is a big problem in the used car market. What are the core components of a new energy vehicle? battery. In the new energy used car market, the unknown and unevaluable evaluation of the battery data, the owner of the car can not sell; and because the price can not meet the buyer's requirements, the buyer does not dare to accept. Last year, the used car trade was more than 13.8 million, and the total transaction amount was more than 860 billion. The market size is very large. At present, the domestic new energy vehicle maintenance rate is very low, with a 33% hedge rate. According to the data of used car trading market, about 75% of the car turnover is below 80,000 yuan. Assuming that a used car costs 80,000, if it is necessary to increase the cost of 10,000 or 5,000 to establish an evaluation system, the cost of evaluation is still very high, so it is now necessary to provide a solution based on the core problem of the new energy vehicle. The Unicom IoT Joint Entrepreneurship Center has developed a solution based on the blockchain and used car residual value assessment scheme based on the pain point. This program has two aspects.

The first is to achieve the tracking and credibility of the data of all aspects of used cars, and at the horizontal level, connect the key nodes of the industrial chain. The chain of new energy vehicles may start from the car dealers, through 4S stores, as well as retailers, insurance companies, including the bank loan industry chain. Each block has a data through the blockchain, which is the sharing of horizontal data. At the vertical level, the platform manages the entire life cycle data of the vehicle. From the factory, the factory data, user car data, through the special communication module installed in the car, real-time car data (of course, this does not involve privacy), such as charging records, etc., written in the blockchain. Other nodes, such as banks and car dealers, can obtain the data and evaluate the value of the car when it is sold twice. The second is to establish an industry index to realize the assetization of used car data. After the aggregating of trusted data, the AI ​​technology is used to realize the strategy model based on used car valuation, to build the index performance of the used car industry, to form an evaluation model of new energy used cars and to evaluate performance. Through the insurance company, financial institutions and other participants, the realization of the assetization of the car, after the purchase of the car can directly take the car as a mortgage.

The second case is trusted supply chain asset management.

In the era of Industry 4.0, only the need to publish goods on the Internet is automatically matched and shipped by the merchant. Today, there are three factors that affect the development of the logistics industry: first, transportation and inventory costs. Second, the location is determined. Third, logistics infrastructure and IT technology. These three factors affect the direction of the logistics industry. There are many links in the supply chain, and logistics is only one part. But no matter how far the modernization develops, the logistics industry will not disappear. According to market reports, the global logistics market will reach 15.5 trillion US dollars in 2024, and the investment in the Internet of Things will stimulate the development of domestic logistics.

The content of logistics can be active assets or fixed assets; but these are currently difficult to collateralize in logistics, and it is difficult to digitize. The logistics process takes a long time, especially shipping. For example, it takes about one to two months for goods to be shipped from the terminal to the United States, and these goods cannot be assetized. They cannot obtain financing through mortgage loans to realize supply chain finance.

According to this industry pain point, Unicom IoT has developed a blockchain-based trusted supply chain asset management solution. The core is to digitally operate assets. There are many ways to digitize assets, including the asset itself plus RFID tags, reading out the characteristic values, adding sensors and weight sensors. After digitizing the asset, the data is written to the blockchain by locating the number and reading the weight-related data parameters. With the trustworthy characteristics of the blockchain itself, the data is shared with each part of the participation, and ultimately the assets are formed. The process of precision or financing of logistics assets is actually a simple data flow.

In the end, a brief introduction to China Unicom Internet of Things. Unicom Internet of Things was established in 2018. Its predecessor was the IoT business unit under the China Unicom Group. It was corporatized in 2018 with a registered capital of 1 billion yuan. It is mainly responsible for China Unicom's non-connected business, including components. The application operation entity is the only platform for China Unicom's IoT external cooperation joint venture. At the same time, it is also responsible for the planning and operation of all platforms of China Unicom's Internet of Things. In addition, China Unicom Internet of Things Research Institute is established. The Internet of Things Research Institute and the Internet of Things (IoT) Corporation are integrated management. The research institute is more focused on the planning and research of the industry.

The above is my speech today, thank you all.

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