Technical analysis: How can smart homes quickly access NB-IoT

NB-IoT (Narrowband Internet of Things) is able to meet the needs of low-energy-consuming devices that rely on batteries to connect and send small amounts of information with low power consumption, low cost, and wide coverage. More and more, it is used in the Internet of Things industry. With the increase of indoor coverage, cost reduction and energy consumption of this new technology, the smart home industry has also explored the application of NB-IoT technology. On July 27th, Haier took the lead in “New IoT, New The scene, the new ecology - the smart home industry NB-IoT application promotion summit forum, jointly developed the first smart home NB-IoT standard, released the smart home industry's first NB-IoT solution - NB-UHomekit, and The on-site demonstration covers three complete NB-IoT commercial solutions for smart appliances , smart communities and commercial appliances. Let's take a look at the reporter's interview with Fan Jiqing, Director of Haier U+ Development, to find out how NB-IoT integrates with smart homes.

First, the technical background

Director Fan Jiqing first introduced the development of NB-IoT technology. He said that wireless communication has developed rapidly in recent years due to its convenient and convenient innate advantages. It has not only been widely used in business, but also has been greatly developed in military applications. As the content of services provided by the network has become more and more abundant, the information processing capability of communication terminals has also been strengthened. The services such as mobile office and mobile shopping have finally turned from fantasy to reality. Smart home appliances have also entered the homes of ordinary people. Among various wireless communication technologies, technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, and cellular mobile communication technologies are widely used in smart home smart homes. As the requirements for intelligence become higher and higher, there are more and more types of connected devices, and the demand is also diversified. At present, high-speed use of 3G, 4G communication systems can be satisfied, medium-rate use of 2G communication can be satisfied, low-rate has not yet perfected low-power cellular application standard protocol. 4G, 3G, and 2G cannot meet the requirements of low power consumption, low cost, wide coverage, and large capacity. Lora, Sigfox, WiFi, Bluetooth, and ZigBee have defects in information security, mobility, coverage, and capacity.

In order to meet the development needs of the Internet of Things, narrow-band IoT communication standards have emerged.

Comparison of advantages and disadvantages of wireless communication technology commonly used in smart home appliances, see the following table

Second, the challenges faced by the smart home industry in the development process

At present, China's smart home market has a certain scale, but in the view of most ordinary consumers, the convenience of living brought by smart home is still a "icing on the cake." Director Fan Jiqing summarized the challenges faced by the current development of the smart home industry. He believes that there are four main aspects.

(1) Operational convenience

The purpose of smart home is to make people enjoy life and make life easier. However, due to technical characteristics, most smart home appliances, smart home networking, binding, and use have certain difficulties. Originally, I wanted to enjoy a more convenient and more comfortable life, but the complicated operation made the use difficult, which seriously affected the user experience.

How to make the operation simpler, the function is more acceptable and dependent on the user, is the first challenge facing the industry.

(2) Network capacity and signal coverage

The home environment is very different. When the number of smart devices reaches a certain number, the communication between them will be affected, which will affect the normal use of the equipment. The network coverage of large houses such as duplex or villas is a challenge that the smart home industry must face. It is difficult to communicate with water heaters, washing machines, etc. in wireless networks such as balconies and bathrooms.

(3) Security risks

Network security is a must for the communications industry, and smart homes are also facing this problem. How to balance trade-offs between convenience and security is a problem that every vendor has to face.

(4) Standards are not uniform

Because the standard system is not mature, different brands of smart home appliances can not identify each other and communicate with each other. Smart home appliances Smart home is a device in the user's home. It is an APP in the hands of users, behind which is a complex cloud platform service system. The investment in designing and developing smart home appliances is huge, and it is difficult to see results in a short time. Therefore, it is a huge challenge for some small and medium-sized enterprises. The design of smart home appliances has a large investment, long cycle and many problems.

Director Fan Jiqing believes that how to face challenges and overcome difficulties in designing simple and easy-to-use smart home appliances is a common problem facing the entire industry.

Third, NB-IoT solution - NB-UHomeKit

The emergence of the NB-IoT technology standard provides a very good solution for low-rate, low-power, wide-area network applications, and is a good complement to the current device access technology. Based on the technical characteristics of NB-IoT and combined with years of experience in the field of smart home appliances, Haier U+ designed and completed the complete NB-IoT access solution, NB-UHomeKit, and provided it to the industry.

Director Fan gave a detailed introduction to Haier NB-UhomeKit open source application solution. He mentioned that NB-UhomeKit is a solution for Haier U+ Smart Life Platform to access U+ platform using NB-IoT technology to realize smart home appliances and home design applications. Protocol standard.

NB-UhomeKit consists of: the device-side SDK, the client SDK, and the M2M access gateway;

The NB-UhomeKit system framework is as follows:

The technical advantages of NB-UhomeKit include the following five points:

1) Dedicated compression algorithm: to solve the contradiction between the small traffic of NB-IoT technology and the big data demand of smart home;

2) Dedicated data acquisition algorithm: solve the contradiction between the low rate of NB-IoT technology and the real-time demand of smart home;

3) Standard protocol: solve the problem of interconnection;

4) National security standards: resolve conflicts between security requirements and ease of use;

5) Standard Development Kit: Reduce development investment, shorten development cycle, and shorten time to market.

Fourth, the solution example:

Director Fan also introduced Haier's practical application case on the solution. He said that after the NB-IoT standard was frozen in June 2016, Haier actively engaged in technical communication and strategy with Huawei, Qualcomm, Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom. Cooperation. Haier U+ completed the standard of NB-IoT in smart home applications by the end of 2016; in July 2017, Telecom took the lead in realizing the full coverage of NB-IoT network in China. Haier U+ completed the design, development and technical implementation of the NB-UHomeKit solution at the end of June 2017. In July, the NB-UHomeKit solution was used to connect the intelligent air conditioner, smart door lock and intelligent community washing machine to the U+ platform with NB-IoT technology in a short time;

U+ has now completed access to three types of devices, providing a complete three commercial solutions:

Household appliances - household air conditioners

1) Easy access by using optimized device, APP, and cloud NB-UhomeKit.

2) Communication data decompression technology to meet the requirements of APP for data.

3) No need to allocate network, power on the network

4) Easy to use, scan code is control

5) Stable connection anywhere, any place

Battery-powered equipment - smart door lock

1) Reduce power consumption by using the optimized device terminal NB-UhomeKit.

2) U+ security SDK is used to ensure the security of the door lock.

3) NB-IoT door lock, power-on scan code binding ready to use

4) Strong signal coverage in the stairwell

5) Ultra low power consumption, 2 years battery replacement

6) Switch lock SMS real-time notification, safe at home, always in control

7) Reliable communication, no worries after sale;

Commercial electrical equipment - community washing machine

1) Use the optimized device side NB-UhomeKit to monitor the device status.

2) Standard API interface, the APP side does not need to be modified.

3) The washing machine is powered on. Implement monitoring machine status and keep your income at your fingertips.

4) Wide signal coverage and low operating cost.

Through the introduction of Director Fan Jiqing, the reporter really felt that Haier U+, as the leader of the smart home industry, has always been at the forefront in the field of smart home. Through the cooperation with the leaders of the industry, the smart home field is based on NB-IoT. Industry application solutions. NB-UhomeKit, the first NB-IoT open source application solution released by Haier in the smart home industry , provides NB-IoT solutions for fast access, cloud integration, security, and communication standards, and promotes NB-IoT and smart home. The deep integration helps enterprises to quickly access NB-IoT and build a smart home ecosystem based on NB-IoT's adaptation of intelligent products. The reporter believes that with the landing and application of NB-UhomeKit, China's home appliance industry will break through the NB-IoT application capability, occupying the international commanding heights of IoT technology application, and China's smart home appliance field will usher in a new outbreak period.