By Outi Niemi
I recently returned from my second trip to Beijing with the MulteFire Alliance where Huawei hosted our fifth MulteFire Open Day. Our Open Days have become a core component of our program to engage with people around the world who want to know more about this exciting technology and see the demonstrations.
While the temperatures soared outside, we had a full room inside and a line-up of presenters that focused on the opportunities that are ripe for MulteFire. MulteFire Alliance Board Member and senior director of Strategy & Standards Mr. Said Tatesh for Huawei EU welcomed attendees with a key statement: that MulteFire is the cornerstone in achieving the digital revolution. As we grapple with connecting billions of people, devices and industries, MulteFire offers a way forward to extend the 3GPP ecosystem and realize the vision of a connected world.
Industrial IoT is Ready for MulteFire
One of the key themes from this Open Day is how MulteFire meets the wireless connectivity requirements of industrial IoT. Our board chair Mr. Stephan Litjens shared the challenges that MulteFire technology overcomes in a port or on a factory floor. In these environments, Wi-Fi just can’t provide the coverage, capacity or mobility that is needed from a wireless network.
Mr. Peng Jianhua, president of Enterprise Wireless Business with Huawei shared with the audience how MulteFire is the critical path to connecting IoT, and that 52% of all IoT connections will be built by enterprises, as opposed to 19% by operators and 17% by internet vendors. These enterprises will need a private LTE network deployable in unlicensed or shared spectrum – and MulteFire is that network.
Mr. Peng shared specific examples of how Huawei’s pre-MulteFire, eLTE technology has been deployed in multiple industries, including campuses, ports, manufacturing facilities and industrial parks. In these environments, MulteFire can support both high bandwidth and low power IoT applications. Additional presentations followed from ZPMC, RichonTech and the Alliance of Industrial Internet (AII).
The Open Day concluded with a panel Q&A where Alliance members from Baicells, Huawei, Nokia and Qualcomm engaged with the audience to answer their questions about product timelines and deployment strategies.
Our next MulteFire Open Day is already scheduled for September 26 in Rome hosted by Athonet. You can find event details and register here. I hope to see you there!
