On the 16th of this month (local time), high-rise buildings appeared in a row after driving about 30 minutes from Bao’an International Airport in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China. This is the point where you can feel the propaganda of ‘China’s Silicon Valley’ in earnest. Shenzhen, China’s first special economic zone, is where major information and communication technology ( ICT ) companies such as Huawei and Tencent have their headquarters. Shenzhen is also a hotspot for entrepreneurship. Talented people from all over the world as well as China are gathering to start a business with technology and brilliant ideas, dreaming of becoming the next Huawei, Tencent. Shenzhen also has a variety of start-up support programs that startups can benefit from. It is more open to foreigners than anywhere else in China. With large and small companies entering Shenzhen, new building construction is continuing in various places among high-rise buildings. This is why Shenzhen is called China’s Silicon Valley.
After passing through the forest of buildings and driving for another 30 minutes, a place reminiscent of a university campus appeared. Large trees are lined up on both sides of the road, and buildings are located next to them. This place, where students seem to be busy taking classes, is the ‘Huawei Campus’, the headquarters of Huawei, a global ICT company.
The ‘5.5G PARK’ sculpture installed in front of the main building of the Huawei Campus located in Shenzhen, China . (Photo = Reporter Park Hyeon-joon)
Among the many buildings located on the campus, one sculpture in front of Huawei’s main building caught my eye. The sculpture shows the message ‘5.5G PARK’ . Huawei manufactures smartphones, wearables, and smart home devices, as well as equipment that goes into telecom base stations.
This sculpture is an expression of Huawei’s will to lead in 5.5G, a step forward from 5G, three to four years after 5G service was commercialized worldwide. If you look at the various ICT devices and solutions of Huawei introduced in Darwin Hall located in the main building, you can understand the meaning of the 5.5G sculpture. Darwin Hall is a comprehensive exhibition hall created by Huawei to introduce its cutting-edge products and solutions and 5G business cases.
Huawei believes that 6G, the next generation communication technology after 5G, will become commercially available in 2030. Research on 6G-related standards and services has already begun. However, there are still about seven years left until 2030. Until then, the number of Internet of Things ( IoT ) devices will increase, and if autonomous driving and smart factories are advanced, it is difficult to handle the amount of data even with the existing 5G. Consumers who are accustomed to 5G will demand a faster and more stable communication network and corresponding stability.
Huawei is conducting research on 6G in preparation for this, but there is still a lot of time left before commercialization. Prior to the commercialization of 6G, a communication technology that was more advanced than 5G was needed. This is because a variety of services can be introduced based on communication infrastructure with speed and quality beyond 5G.
Huawei has set a target for commercialization of 5.5G by 2025. “ We expect that there will be about 100 billion IoT devices connecting various things by 2025,” said Daoheon Hwang, deputy director of cooperation and public relations at Huawei, who introduced Darwin Hall to Korean reporters. It will play a role in supporting the smooth operation of these IoT devices with advanced low-latency characteristics compared to 5G .”
Huawei plans to use 5.5G to introduce various services in the B2C (business-to-consumer) and B2B (business-to-business) markets. “Using 5.5G, we will provide an immersive experience to individual and corporate customers,” said Deputy General Manager Daoheon Hwang.
Prior to the commercialization of 5.5G, Huawei is making cases of streamlining work by applying existing 5G to various industrial sites. Tianjin Port in China is a representative example. In the past, a person moved a large container by climbing on a crane 60m high from the ground and controlling it. However, as Huawei connects the crane that moves the container to 5G, an environment has been established in which people no longer have to climb high and do dangerous work. Currently, workers are moving containers by remotely controlling cranes 10 km from the port. Smart Tianjin Port was built in September 2021. Shanghai’s port has also been transformed into a smart port. Shanghai Port has been smartized earlier than Tianjin Port. Daoheon Huang, deputy manager , explained, “Light beams were applied to Shanghai Port, and about 30 CC (closed circuit) TVs were installed on cranes so that workers could work remotely while watching high-definition screens토스카지노.”
A view of the main building of the Huawei campus in Shenzhen, China. (Photo = Reporter Park Hyeon-joon)
A 5-minute drive from the main building where Darwin Hall is located, Huawei’s ‘New ICT Hall’ is located in a building in the J4 district. Here, you can see various examples of digital transformation ( DX ) that Huawei has carried out. Huawei’s headquarters campus is a representative example of DX . Various controls can be performed while viewing the results of collecting and analyzing data generated from CCTVs and IoT sensors installed throughout the campus on a single screen. On the screen of the New ICT Hall we visited this afternoon, a figure was displayed indicating that 927 people had visited the Huawei campus and that 216 parking spaces remained. If a fire breaks out in a specific area, you can check the appearance of the area through a high-definition screen and send firefighting experts immediately. In addition , CCTV distinguishes the actions of people and objects and increases work efficiency. This is because artificial intelligence ( AI ) has been applied. For example, if a person tries to climb over a campus fence, CCTV recognizes this and notifies the person in charge with a warning sound. However, if a nearby tree grows and its branch crosses the fence, CCTV recognizes it as an object rather than a person and does not sound an alarm.
Huawei also smartized Shenzhen Bauan Airport. The airport has a station where about 1,000 planes can pick up and drop off guests. Since numerous planes come and go every day, it is necessary to quickly find an empty station and guide the plane to help passengers get on and off quickly. In response, Huawei introduced a system that applies AI and IoT sensors to airports to instantly identify empty stations and guide airplanes. As a result, it took about four hours to guide planes to an empty station in the past, but now it can be done in two minutes. Thanks to this, an environment has been created where 2.6 million passengers a year do not have to go through the inconvenience of getting off at a non-station and moving to the airport arrivals by bus.