Intelligent connectivity: The key to building an intelligent world

Technology is an intrinsic part of today’s interconnected world. Connectivity, infused with emerging technologies, is shaping a future where everything is beginning to act, react, and collaborate wirelessly and intelligently. As connectivity is becoming increasingly important, higher bandwidth, lower latency, and thinner network slices will create value.

Moving towards intelligent connectivity with AI

Every upgrade to connectivity has fundamentally transformed societies. As the world moves towards the new digital era,we believe intelligent connectivity will have three major characteristics-ubiquitous gigabit, deterministic experience, and hyper-automation.

Bandwidth is the basis of connectivity. Ubiquitous gigabit connectivity is needed for ultra-HD AI cameras, drones, industrial cameras, and industrial VR/AR applications. Second most critical factor will be deterministics experience, without which companies will not be able to guarantee security and reliability. Finally, as industries become intelligent, the scale and complexity of networks will multiply manifold. Hyper-automation would mean using big data and AI to handle all complexities with intelligence.

Intelligent connectivity, characterised by ubiquitous connectivity, deterministic experience, and hyper-automation, will help to build industry intelligent twins. The goal of such intelligent connectivity is to make connectivity intelligent and to connect intelligence.
5G intelligent connectivity: Gigabit uplink speed, 20ms latency, submeter-level location

Innovations in 5G intelligent connectivity is developing more rapidly than anticipated. To meet the industry needs for intelligent upgrades, we need to continue to innovate and improve our 5G network capabilities in terms of uplink bandwidth, latency, and location accuracy. For instance, innovative solutions like super uplink technology, have allowed Huawei’s 5G uplink speed to reach Gbps level, enabling HD video uploading for smart manufacturing. For scenarios that require remote operation and control such as ports, 5G intelligent connectivity technology has introduced features such as pre-scheduling and mini-slot to reduce latency to 20ms and replace 90% of manual labor with automated operations. Thanks to UTDOA and higher bandwidth, Huawei’s 5G intelligent connectivity can support submeter-level location accuracy for smart manufacturing, enhancing the efficiency of production and management at industrial parks.
Intelligent connectivity solutions for all scenarios

Technologies such as 5G, F5G, and Wi-Fi 6 can provide ubiquitous gigabit, low latency connectivity to intelligent interaction devices such as AI cameras, ultra-HD drones, ultra-HD industrial cameras, robotic arms, VR/AR applications etc.

AI along with intelligent connectivity can also be applied to the full stack of networks to precisely identify service intent, dynamically allocate network resources, and build networks that take advantage of the synergy between intelligent IP and optical networks. This will meet the varying needs of different users and deliver a deterministic experience. Huawei’s autonomous driving network (ADN) solutions bring intelligence to networks by integrating AI into network elements, networks, and clouds. Huawei’s ADN networks are self-organizing, self-healing, and self-optimizing. These solutions will make digital industry services and hyper-automated operations a reality.

For the past 40 years, we have used Metcalfe’s law to explain the value of connectivity. A network’s value is proportional to the square of the number of nodes in the network. With the advent ofdigital transformation new variables can be included like – bandwidth, latency, and network slicing – to Metcalfe’s law to redefine the value of connectivity in today’s digitally intelligent and hyper-connected world. When we put this new Metcalfe’s law to work, we will find that the quality of connectivity has become a factor of production-connectivity is productivity

Future advancement of intelligent connectivity

Over the past 40 years, Huawei has worked with all stakeholders to connect the unconnected and build a fully connected world. Over the next few years, we are committed to building industry intelligent twins with intelligent connectivity.

Humanity is now transitioning from the information world to the intelligent world. Intelligence will connect more closely with humans than ever to push our physical limits even further. Fifth-generation connectivity technology, primarily 5G, IPv6+, F5G, and Wi-Fi 6, is bridging the virtual and physical worlds with ubiquitous gigabit, deterministic experience, and hyper-automation capabilities. An intelligent world is just around the corner.

Looking even further ahead, sixth-generation connectivity technology will bring more changes across multiple dimensions (space, time, and scale), including hundreds of times higher bandwidth, lower latency, and wider coverage, taking humanity from the intelligent world to the holographic world. Our exploration in connectivity will never end!