Contributed by Guo Tao
What is the Internet? It enables people to quickly search, sell or buy things online, and accommodates transactions for the largest-scale online shopping event in the world.
What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)? It enables machine learning so a computer can beat the top human player at Go.
What is the Internet of Things (IoT)? It is currently the largest connected network in the world. The IoT extends connectivity to a wide variety of smart things and devices to make our world more intelligent.
The interconnectivity of the IoT changes the operational mode of every industry and even potentially changes the lives of every person. This is where our physical and virtual worlds collide.
The IoT Gains Momentum
The IoT is not a new concept. As early as 1999 to 2000, the concept had emerged, but many people were used to calling it a sensor network at that time. With continuous development of technologies and applications, especially with the overall rise in popularity of the Internet, the connotation and extensions of the IoT are also expanding. In short, the IoT aims to connect all the objects to the Internet through information-sensing equipment for information exchange, to realize intelligent identification and management. In the past, people were mainly concerned about the relationship and interactions between humans and objects. With expansion of the IoT, objects can also interact with each other. Various devices and terminals are no longer just boxes, but are sensing objects, empowered with data, that now provides ‘life’ and ‘vitality’ via a connected network.
What changes have occurred from increased utilization of the IoT? In the past, for example, one day every month, people visited households to read water meters and electricity meters. With remote smart meter reading, these activities are no longer completed manually; instead, water and electricity utilization is automatically recorded and calculated. Moreover, the data can also be used to analyze information such as people’s usage patterns and house vacancy status. One unexpected IoT use is monitoring the status of elevators and escalators for predictive maintenance, either remotely or using a smartphone App. With Elevators IoT, the operating status of all elevators can be monitored in real time and elevator failures can be predicted in advance, effectively avoiding outages and downtime. For some special situations, such as shopping malls, the analysis of elevator data can also help determine the floor on which people stay for a longer time, so that shopping malls can make timely adjustments to generate higher revenue. For another example, late at night when you enter a dark residential district, the lights on the way to your home automatically turn on. In this circumstance, automatic lighting improves your safety and efficiently saves energy. You must have experienced such cases where the IoT is seamlessly sensing around you, though you may not notice it at times.
Currently, the IoT has traversed into many fields such as transportation, public safety, environmental protection, electric power, smart home, and medical and health care. The IoT brings a significant industry cluster effect and it is possible that the industry will create a trillion dollar industrial ecosystem. The IoT will create more possibilities with collaborative functioning and promotion of new technologies and applications, such as cloud computing, Big Data, AI, and edge computing.
China’s IoT exploration and application progresses are synchronous with other countries in the world. On the one hand, more and more enterprises in China, including Huawei, Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, SANY, and Haier, are deepening their efforts in the field of IoT. Through innovations on IoT platforms, operating systems, gateways, and smart terminals, the enterprises collaboratively promote the establishment and development of the IoT industrial ecosystem. On the other hand, the combination of the IoT and areas including industrial manufacturing, agriculture, transportation, energy, healthcare, and urban management promote digital transformation of industries.
Convergence of Edge Computing and the IoT
According to IDC reports, by 2020, more than 50 billion terminals and devices will be connected to the network. In the future, over 40 percent of data will need to be analyzed, processed, and stored on the network edge. When it comes to the IoT, one concept we cannot get around is edge computing.
Edge computing integrates network, computing, storage, and application capabilities to provide edge intelligence services on the network edge, near objects or the source of data. Edge computing fulfills key requirements of industries for digital transformation, including agile connections, real-time services, data optimization, smart applications, and security.
One of the characteristics of the IoT is that data computing, storage, and analysis are completed locally — without the need for transmitting all of the data to the data center or cloud for processing. Distributed and nearby processing will become the ‘new normal’ and it is also the basis for the rise of edge computing. Different from cloud computing, edge computing performs better in analyzing real-time and short-cycle data, which facilitates the real-time, intelligent processing, and execution of local services while fully maximizing computing resources.
Furthermore, the IoT is an important driving force for the development of edge computing. In turn, edge computing is the technology foundation that supports implementation of the IoT. If the IoT is compared to an application, edge computing is its technical core.
The physical objects connected to the IoT network are diverse and support a large variety of application scenarios. Connectivity as well as the real-time quality and diversity of data pose new challenges to the deployment and implementation of the IoT. Edge computing helps to address these challenges. Edge computing achieves converged and collaborative development with cloud computing as well as that of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Operational Technology (OT). For example, well-known industrial giants such as Siemens, Schneider Electric, and General Electric apply IT into intelligent manufacturing to set up automated production lines and smart factories, significantly increasing production efficiency. In another example, Huawei’s EC-IoT gateway enables one-stop access of on-site terminals, and also allows local data pre-analysis, with edge and cloud synergy.
Someone boldly predicted that cloud computing was dead and the future would belong to edge computing. Actually, edge computing and cloud computing will coexist and develop collaboratively, and will enable digital transformation of industries together.
A trend becomes evident: Edge computing can better promote implementation of the IoT.
As more and more devices are connected to the network, the size of the network continuously increases, placing higher requirements for real-time analysis, especially as larger amounts of data are also being generated. Edge computing achieves efficient, timely, and secure processing of distributed data, which exactly meets the preceding requirements. In the past, data both inside and outside of the data center have to be transmitted to the data center for centralized processing, which increases the need for reliable transmission and raises storage costs. The advantages of edge computing are that data is stored and processed on the network edge, which greatly reduces costs and increases processing efficiency. For example, gradually emerging In-Network Computing empowers the network with more powerful processing capabilities. Data is processed locally as the data traffic passes through intelligent Network Interface Cards (iNICs) in network devices. Edge computing will redefine the relationship between the cloud, pipe, and device. In the past, cloud functioned as the ‘brain’, pipe created the ‘nervous system’, and device simulated the ‘limbs’. Devices on the network edge side played a role of passive, being dominated, and being managed. With the rise of edge computing, devices also have certain computing and storage capabilities; connections and data analysis will be intelligently distributed closer to the objects or the source of data.
Undoubtedly, edge computing accelerates implementation of the IoT. Fields such as industrial IoT, agricultural IoT, Smart City, and smart home require low latency, high bandwidth, analysis of mass amounts of data, and device intelligence, which will be implemented through edge computing.
Edge Computing Finds Its ‘Leader’
“Barbaric growth” truly reflects the development status of the IoT and edge computing. Various manufacturers are exploring the IoT and edge computing markets with their own understanding and advantages. However, there are currently no uniform standards, collaboration, or common vision. Though the market is lively, sustainable development becomes a determining factor. Until the IoT and edge computing are universally accepted and put into large-scale applications, standardization, market growth across industries, and ecosystem expansion are all necessary.
The Scene That the Edge Computing Consortium Was Established in 2016 Is Still Fresh
In China, an industry weathervane — the Edge Computing Consortium (ECC) — has been set up for the development of edge computing. On November 30, 2016, the ECC was launched in Beijing by organizations including Huawei, Shenyang Institute of Automation (SIA) of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), Intel, ARM, and iSoftStone. There were 62 members for the first session, covering different fields including academic institutions, industrial manufacturing, and electric power. The ECC defined four major positions: Setting up an edge computing industry cooperation platform, promoting open collaboration between OT and ICT industries, incubating the industry’s best application practices, and promoting healthy and sustainable development of the edge computing industry. To sum up, the ECC’s purposes are industry collaboration, openness for innovation, demonstrations for promotion, and prosperous development through extensive cooperation among organizations to build an industrial ecosystem.
After a year of development, the ECC has accomplished several achievements: As of now, the number of ECC members has increased to 136. The ECC has set up three industry committees, including Smart Streetlight, Smart In-Vehicle, and Edge Monitoring. ECC works closely with other mainstream industry associations to promote the edge computing architecture and platform to become industry mainstream, and expand into other industry application segments. Through joint innovation with manufacturers, the ECC has launched the first of 11 test beds. By the end of 2017, the number of test beds is expected to reach 20, involving fields such as energy, transportation, industrial manufacturing, and Smart City. The ECC released its ECC white paper and worked with other standardization organizations to lead or participate in the formulation of relevant standards for edge computing, to further promote industry consensus and industry collaboration. In particular, on November 7, 2017, the ECC successfully hosted the Edge Computing Forum (ECF) with Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems (FOKUS), Europe’s largest research institute for applied science, in Berlin, Germany. It is the first ECF held in Europe and opened the door to launch edge computing globally.
On November 29, 2017, the next session of the Edge Computing Industry Summit is about to be held in Beijing. The latest progress, successful applications, and practical experiences of China in edge computing will be demonstrated. At the summit, you will find clear answers on how edge computing accelerates implementation of the IoT and promotes digital transformation of industries.
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Source: Huawei Enterprise Blog
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