Industry Application Practices Based on 5G SA

2020 is the first year for commercial use of 5G SA in China. Chinese operators are accelerating the evolution to SA target network, which is a new stage for them to lead 5G development. 5G R15 released in 2019 has already supported the standalone (SA) mode. At the 88th meeting of 3GPP TSG, 3GPP announced the freeze of 5G R16, marking the official completion of the first 5G evolution version. 5G R16 will bring higher efficiency and performance, enrich 5G industry application scenarios and accelerate the global 
5G industrialization.5G SA provides plenty of opportunities for operators to develop both B2C and B2B services in the new era. To obtain more industry users, it is necessary to focus more precisely on application scenarios and find their business pain points and key problems, so as to solve problems with differentiated solutions, create value with precise services and achieve win-win results. Therefore, ZTE has adhered to the concept of deploying cloud on demand and networks with cloud to create precision cloud-network convergence solution that enables industry innovation and upgrade, and has carried out extensive practices with partners.

World's First 5G SA Wireless PRB Slicing for Metro 
Guangzhou Mobile, ZTE and Guangzhou Metro jointly implemented the world's first 5G SA wireless physical recourse block (PRB) hard isolation slicing solution at the Canton Tower Station of Guangzhou Metro in May 2020, covering 5G terminals, 5G NR, 5G transport and 5G core network. They built an end-to-end 5G slicing, marking the official application of sliced-based 5G private network in the Metro field. As compared to slicing based on QoS, PRB-reservation based slicing provides hard isolation of dedicated wireless spectrum resources and supports flexible PRB exclusive and sharing policies. Guangzhou Metro can reserve a certain proportion of PRB to ensure the minimum bandwidth and maximum callable bandwidth for its private subway network, which provides isolation and certainty necessary for the private 5G network.
This practice is the first time that wireless PRB hard slicing has been successfully applied in the 5G SA environment. 5G-based AR+ face recognition is deployed for security application. A 4K HD camera is installed for  passenger face capture, online automatic recognition and remote  judgment. This improves the accuracy of troubleshooting and travel safety. The Guangzhou Canton Tower Station has also become a demonstration station for 5G Smart Metro in China.

5G+MEC Smart Factory Based on Industrial Precision Cloud Network 
The combination of 5G and Industrial Internet will have great application potential and enable the manufacturing industry to transform digitally and even upgrade intelligently. The Yunnan Branch of China Mobile (Yunnan Mobile) recently joined hands with ZTE to create an industrial precision cloud network solution. With traffic offloaded locally by MEC, the solution enables Yunnan Shenhuo Aluminum Co to realize local management and operation of its network traffic, thus meeting the requirements of low delay and large bandwidth of video surveillance, mobile office, and on-site data collection and transmission in the industrial park. Different from the traditional centralized cloud computing, MEC integrates cloud computing, mobile computing, and wireless network functions, so that the cloud can deal with a large number of storage and computing problems of mobile devices in real time, and users can access different networks as required by customization. In addition to enterprise private and public networks, the solution realizes network isolation based on campus, which ensures the security and isolation of enterprise data. 
Yunnan Mobile and ZTE will further assist Shenhuo Aluminum Co in building smart factories to achieve digital twin platforms, smart security, autonomous driving, logistics and asset management, environmental monitoring, and other innovative applications based on 5G, MEC, big data, IoT, and AI.

China's First E2E 5G Slicing and Intelligent Manufacturing
ZTE worked with the Zhejiang Branch of China Telecom (Zhejiang Telecom) to help Supcon Technology Group launch China's first 5G SA site and run a successful pre-commercial trial of "5G slicing+MEC+intelligent manufacturing" in September 2019, aiming to build a new 5G smart factory.
Supcon Technology Group, the largest supplier of automatic control solutions in China, needs to collect a large amount of data in production and and transmit it to the industrial internet platform. However, the traditional network restricts the backhaul effect of HD videos, which ultimately has an uncontrollable impact on data analysis, control and prediction.
In response to the above pain points, Zhejiang Telecom, ZTE and Supcon Technology Group jointly developed an integrated solution of “5G slicing+MEC+intelligent manufacturing” that can implement rapid deployment of machine visual slicing and fast backhaul of video streams by using key technologies such as slice stores, wireless slicing awareness, end-to-end slicing security isolation, dynamic slice migration, UPF moving to edge, and UPF offloading. These slices can reduce the latency, jitter, and packet loss rate of video data transmission, guarantee the quality of video transmission and improve the accuracy and timeliness of video analysis results.
The solution is applicable to wireless data collection and operation monitoring scenarios, allowing operators to avoid on-site processes in mobile and harsh environments, thereby reducing the labor intensity and security risks of operators. Industrial cameras and edge computing gateways are deployed on the production line to replace monitoring instruments. The industrial cameras take a video of the feed inlet and upload the stream to MEC through the uplink 5G slice. After calculating and analyzing the images, MEC automatically notifies the classifier and raises an alarm in case of any abnormal image. The solution can also be used in enterprise full-service data integration scenarios, such as visual analysis of the bearer flow, device data collection, personnel security management and remote device maintenance.

As a 5G pioneer, ZTE has a complete 5G SA end-to-end solution and an ecosystem covering 15 industries such as manufacturing, transportation, education, health care and finance. With the unprecedented development opportunities brought by the new infrastructure strategy, ZTE will work with operators and industry partners to build a new 5G precision cloud network that will enable digital transformation of the industry and create a promising future.