China Mobile Zhejiang and Huawei helped Ningbo successfully commercialize electric power services based on 5G dedicated slicing networks through their innovative IntelligentRAN 5GtoB Suite and 5G power-grid slicing network solutions. The 5GtoB Suite solution allows China Mobile Zhejiang to replace manual site surveying with automatic readiness evaluation for 5G slicing networks dedicated to electric power services, significantly reducing costs and boosting service provisioning efficiency. 5G power-grid slicing network solutions ensure that exclusive network resources needed for electric power services are available while providing high security isolation.

China Mobile Zhejiang pioneers 5G, leading 5G service development in China in terms of base station scale and making continuous efforts to explore and innovate toB applications. In collaboration with Huawei, China Mobile Zhejiang has built a highly resilient 5G dedicated slicing network for State Grid Zhejiang, to support 11 applications across power generation, grid, load, and storage.

In the electric power sector, with terminals widely distributed across complex scenarios to deliver on various service level agreements (SLAs), network readiness evaluation based on manual site surveying is time-consuming and inefficient. A single site would require an average of 0.25 person-days. 5GtoB Suite automates the readiness evaluation for 5G slicing virtual private networks dedicated to electric power services. It cuts the workload of manual surveying by 80%, enabling the provisioning of mobile electric power services more efficiently.

Figure 1: Distribution of network sites China Mobile Zhejiang has dedicated to State Grid

The 5GtoB Suite solution incorporates two cutting-edge capabilities:

Automatic surveying of electric power services in batches: By using scenario-based adaptive identification of penetration loss and automatic calibration of ray propagation models, this capability automatically evaluates network readiness based on the network quality requirements of different electric power services and precise simulation results from different terminal locations. It reduces the workload of site surveying by 80% and improves service provisioning efficiency.

Network planning with user-level SLA assurance: By using intelligent environment modeling and user-level SLA simulation to automatically evaluate the coverage and perceived rates of electric power services and public-network services, this capability supports the holistic planning of toB and toC services, helping operators fulfill the needs of both services.

Figure 2: Multi-service-scenario evaluation of China Mobile Zhejiang's sites that serve State Grid

The 5GtoB Suite service provisioning evaluation solution is an important 5G application innovation for the electric power industry, which helps State Grid Zhejiang quickly roll out services based on 5G slicing virtual private networks. Since 2020, China Mobile Zhejiang and Huawei have launched multiple 5GtoB innovation projects to help industry customers achieve digital and intelligent transformation and improve operations efficiency. Peng Chenfa, deputy general manager of China Mobile Zhejiang network department, said: "Our 5G hard-slice-based power-grid-dedicated virtual private network enables electric power services to exclusively use network resources and connects massive power terminals, facilitating the digital transformation of the electric power industry. 5GtoB has progressed from preliminary exploration to large-scale deployment. We will continue to develop scenario-based solutions for various industries based on our 5GtoB high-quality network to address the pain points of industry users and meet their service requirements."

This content is sponsored by Huawei.