5G MEC Joint Innovation Base Is Established

 Haier, China Mobile, and Huawei unveiled their 5G MEC Joint Innovation Base at the Haier Institute of Industrial Intelligence.

Opening ceremony

Opening ceremony of the 5G MEC Joint Innovation Base

The 5G MEC Joint Innovation Base was inaugurated by Sun Ming (Executive Director of Haier Institute of Industrial Intelligence) and Qi Bin (Director of Huawei Cloud Core Network Solutions Design Department). The ceremony was also attended by Chen Xinyu (Industry Director of Government & Enterprise Service Department, China Mobile), Wang Hongli (President of Huawei Cloud Core Network R&D Department), Zhang Weijie (General Manager of Haier Smart Manufacturing and Director of Haier Institute of Industrial Intelligence), and Wei Tao (Director of IT Platform, Communications and 5G Department, Haier).

5G is the ideal choice for building private networks for industries. Its greatest potential is unleashed when it is allied to MEC, which is a powerful enabler for a blend of connectivity, computing, and application. MEC is key to digitalized manufacturing. As pioneers of 5G and MEC application, Haier, China Mobile, and Huawei have achieved remarkable success in their joint 5G MEC-based smart factory project, which has received industry-wide recognition and can be applied in the manufacturing field. These parties have furthered their collaboration by setting up the 5G MEC Joint Innovation Base, which encourages the adoption of 5G technologies in the manufacturing industry, and accelerates the industry's digital and intelligent upgrade.

The 5G MEC Joint Innovation Base serves as an R&D center for 5G industrial application. Huawei will work together with a number of partners, including China Mobile, Haier Group's IT platform, Haier COSMOPlat, SenseTime, Beijing Haiyan Automation Technology Co., Ltd., and Beijing Microview Science and Technology Co.,Ltd. as they work to verify key technologies, build an open ecosystem, and popularize the application of 5G+Industrial Internet across industries. In doing so, they can gain more impetus for utilizing 5G technologies, and accelerate the transformation of technical solutions into commercial success.

The partners have successfully set up the team, its operation method, and its objectives for the year, following extensive discussion. The base will focus on Smart Factory and 5G MEC and will explore the integration of OT and ICT networks, while also establishing the 5G Smart Factory construction architecture, and further develop more scenario-based solutions for implementing innovative technologies in industries. In this way, it will advance the application of 5G+Industrial Internet, build an innovative, commercialized, product-based, and service-oriented mutually beneficial ecosystem.

The base has three goals, and the first goal is to explore ways to apply commercial 5G MEC solutions to more manufacturing scenarios. As the Haier Smart Factory implements this solution into their operations, the parties will test, monitor and optimize the solution to smoothen its application across other industries. The second goal is to boost research on key products and technologies for 5G applications to fit into diverse scenarios of industrial manufacturing, and define sustainable network buildout modes. The third is to explore ways to productize the solution through extensive partnership, and develop an integrated framework for scalable, replicable, scenario-specific solutions.

Wang Hongli said that it is now a critical period for the development of 5G+Industrial Internet, and we will see a large-scale application of 5G MEC from 2021. Leveraging the 5G MEC Joint Innovation Base, Huawei will continue to adapt its 5G technologies to more diverse industry scenarios, benefiting more industries.

We hope that more partners will join us to advance technology integration and innovation, create a thriving ecosystem, and usher in a new era of Industrial Internet.