Radio and television IoT solution

I. Preface

IoT realizes the interconnection of ubiquitous service terminals (such as gas meters and smoke sensors) through wired/wireless long- or short-distance communication networks. In a private network or Internet, the IoT platform converges data, integrates applications, and provides remote meter reading, smart fire control, smart community and other vertical applications by adopting suitable security mechanisms. IoT is deeply integrating digital technologies such as cloud computing, big data and AI and is welcomed by various organizations and companies to jointly promote the development of the digital economy.

II. IoT becomes a new impetus for the development of the radio and television industry

The foundation of this interconnected age is connection. Different application scenarios require different network connection technologies. Since 2017, low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) has become a hot spot in the IoT industry with the investments of China's three major mobile operators in NB-IoT network construction. LPWAN is applied in scenarios requiring low-power-consumption, low-cost, long-distance, and large-scale connection. It is suitable for 60% of IoT applications. The current mainstream LPWAN technologies include NB-IoT and LoRa, both of which have been widely used in remote meter reading, smart fire control and other business fields.

At present, the three major mobile operators in China have announced the commercial application of the NB-IoT network. However, rapid growth in the scale of NB-IoT connection is not yet seen. Besides, the average revenue per unit (ARPU) of NB-IoT network services remains low (about CNY 5 per link per year), and the return on investment of large-scale network construction is lackluster. All these reasons undermine the confidence of mobile operators in the future construction of NB-IoT networks. The reality is that the NB-IoT networks of current mobile operators have insufficient in-depth coverage. Currently, many enterprise users choose LoRa to deploy networks on demand and implement low-power IoT projects. However, an increasing number of these users are expecting more flexible wireless LoRa network services from network operators as they cannot deploy networks and conduct network O&M.

The radio and television industry is experienced in network construction, O&M management and operation of ICT projects of the government and enterprises. Therefore, for the radio and television industry, under the actual situation where a national network has not yet been formed and 5G construction has not yet begun, it is undoubtedly a better choice to apply LoRa technologies featured with a mature industrial chain, low construction cost and versatile application ecology to the development of IoT.

On November 22, 2018, the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Development of Smart Radio and Television issued by the National Radio and Television Administration explicitly mentioned in "accelerating the construction of the scientific and technological innovation system for smart radio and television" that "the R&D and innovative application of IoT and other new technologies should be promoted." Buoyed by the rapid development of the digital economy, seizing the market opportunity of IoT development will help the radio and television industry realize business transformation and growth and construct "smart radio and television." At present, Hangzhou Wasu Digital Media Television Network Co., Ltd., Shanghai Oriental Cable Network Co., Ltd., Guizhou Radio Film & TV Media Group and other enterprises in the radio and television industry have completed LoRa network deployment and IoT pilot project construction with different scales.

III. Consideration of constructing low-power IoT in the radio and television industry

The IoT development for smart radio and television requires the construction of network and platform architectures, the introduction of terminal cooperation ecology, the integration of vertical industrial applications, application promotion, service delivery and other crucial links. The following are the recommendations for the overall development strategy of IoT for the radio and television industry:

(1) Clarify the positioning and overall development plan, build the IoT infrastructures, and deploy networks on demand in the early stage.

(2) Clarify and focus on the vertical industrial scenarios with the orientation of business needs, and select terminal products and ecological partners for industrial applications.

(3) Take typical applications as the models to summarize the business model and verify the products and solution capabilities of ecological partners.

(4) Promote "package-based" products and services to realize the large-scale service implementation, and highlight new demands for industrial applications.

Construction of IoT infrastructures: At present, mainstream cable television network operators in and outside China have selected LoRa as the low-power WAN technology. The global standard of the LoRa Alliance is LPWAN (LoRa is a physical-layer technology and LoRaWAN is a MAC-layer technology standard). Radio and television companies should adopt the LoRaWAN protocol platform generally used in the industry and select third-party IoT terminals compliant with the LoRaWAN standard. The difference between LoRa and traditional antenna technology is that it requires the LoRaWAN network server (LoRa platform) for data convergence and analysis; therefore, to use LoRa, a radio and television company needs to build the IoT platform based on the LoRaWAN server, so that it can build its IoT ecosystem based this platform.

Construction of vertical industry layout and ecosystem: Fragmentation of IoT application requirements restricts the large-scale implementation of IoT. Radio and television companies should prioritize industries with low-power IoT demands and large scales based on their resource advantages. In addition to providing standard LoRa network services, radio and television companies can work with terminal manufacturers, industrial application developers and other ecological partners to provide overall scenario-oriented solutions and promote the large-scale commercial application of LoRa across vertical industries. The industry should focus on scenario-based applications such as remote meter reading, smart fire control and smart community.

Exploration of business models: The business model of radio and television IoT can be divided into "connection selling" and "service selling" based on different customer groups. For customers of vertical industries such as gas and power with IoT platforms and terminals, radio and television companies can provide LoRa network ("pipeline") services and collect connection fees based on terminal quantity or data volume. For government and SME customers, radio and television companies can form partnership relations with them and achieve profitability through the division of cooperative profits. As the market swells, radio and television companies can also provide API open services such as terminal management and data analysis based on the IoT platform, realizing profitability through data and exploring new business models.

IV. H3C LoRaWAN IoT solution

In the low-power wide-area IoT market, H3C focuses on the industry's common LoRaWAN technology standards, providing radio and television customers with the Oasis IoT platform that integrates LoRaWAN network servers and the serialized LoRa gateway products (two major LoRaWAN network infrastructures). H3C has the LoRa IoT terminals and the application development partner system preferred by vertical industries. It fully supports the construction of the LoRaWAN low-power wide-area IoT and the implementation of IoT services.

H3C LoRaWAN solution architecture

Oasis IoT platform: Create a platform converging IoT data of the radio and television industry

H3C Oasis IoT platform adopts container-based microservice architecture with three core functions: connection management, device management and application enablement. The platform integrates LoRaWAN network server functions and can converge and analyze wireless LoRa data. With "One Platform, All Connection" as the core concept, the Oasis IoT platform can support the access of massive IoT devices through various wired/wireless long- or short-distance network connection modes (such as RFID/Wi-Fi/2G/LTE). It provides standard APIs to enable the development of IoT applications for various application scenarios.

LoRa gateway products: Operational LoRaWAN network products

H3C provides three series of LoRa gateway products: base station type, outdoor type and indoor type, meeting the network coverage needs of different scenarios. All products support the common LoRaWAN standard in the industry and support data convergence and remote device management through the Oasis IoT platform. The low-power wide-area network covers the area within 1–10 km from the actual deployment environment. To realize operation-level network coverage, H3C has specially created the new LoRa gateway of the IG4500 series operation-level base station for radio and television customers. The gateway provides 16 uplink channels, supports wall-mounted and pole-held installation, supports the lightning protection grade of 20 KA and can be deployed on the tower.

Working with partners to provide scenario-based solutions for vertical industries

To promote the implementation of the radio and television IoT businesses, H3C has worked with its partners to provide radio and television customers with industrial solution sets of LoRaWAN. Currently, H3C has unveiled scenario-based solutions such as smart fire control, smart community and smart campus.

Figure 2 LoRaWAN scenario-based solution networking diagram

Based on the LoRa low-power wide-area network technology, the overall solution consists of four parts: wireless monitoring devices, LoRa gateway, Oasis IoT platform, and intelligent application management platform. H3C cooperates industry-leading IoT terminal vendors and application developers to ensure the overall delivery quality of solutions, reduce the time spent on choosing industrial partners, and realize the rapid implementation of LoRa across vertical industries. Besides, H3C also shares the IoT ecology and enables the implementation of radio and television IoT solutions.

IV. Radio and television practice

Hangzhou Wasu Digital Media Television Network Co., Ltd. and H3C cooperated in the implementation of innovative radio and television IoT services. H3C provided operator-level LoRaWAN infrastructure and operator-level IoT management platform solutions, and connected them with a wide range of products from third-party IoT terminal manufacturers. In May 2018, Hangzhou Wasu Digital Media Television Network Co., Ltd. successfully deployed a LoRa-based smart community pilot in Hangzhou Torch Residential Area. In January 2019, it started the construction of the "metropolitan-area IoT management platform" in Hangzhou and realized the full coverage of LoRaWAN in the main urban regions. Besides, based on the IoT management platform of H3C, it also cooperated with third-party application developers to create an integrated community management platform that integrates many IoT sensing applications such as well cover inclination monitoring, wireless smoke sensing, and electrical safety monitoring. Taking the pilot of Hangzhou Torch Residential Area as an example, the whole residential area adopts IoT to realize intelligent data perception and collection and uses the integrated community management platform to fully interconnect people, vehicles, public facilities and assets facilities, realizing the overall data convergence, status visibility, service manageability and event controllability.

The interface of smart community IoT of Hangzhou Wasu Digital Media Television Network Co., Ltd.

V. Summary

As professional network operators are required for the implementation of LoRa-based low-power IoT projects, on increasing number of enterprise customers/service providers/industrial solution providers hope to cooperate with the radio and television industry to realize the value of IoT. The radio and television industry has actively built IoT and has provided new services for individual users, government and enterprises to realize new economic growth by combining the requirements of both IoT and vertical industries such as gas, power and government. In addition, the IoT services can also be bundled with existing cable television, broadband and other services to improve user stickiness. H3C provides LoRaWAN IoT solutions to help the radio and television industry embrace the new IoT era.