This article is compiled from an exclusive interview with Jin Fahua, the co-founder of EMQ, by "Communications World"
Author: Shu Wenqiong
In an unmanned factory, the sound of pressing metal plates and machine tools is heard continuously, the equipment status indicator light is slightly bright, the AGV trolley automatically shuttles, and the production order is orderly. On the empty airport apron, the unmanned trailer is loaded with suitcases and driven to the terminal building. It can automatically avoid obstacles when encountering obstacles, and can drive normally even in places with weak signals.
With the support of cloud-edge collaboration and open source concepts, the above-mentioned IoT application scenarios are changing from ideals to reality. The transformation from a good idea to a practical application is inseparable from the active contributions of EMQ Yingyun Technology and other Internet of Things industry chain enterprises.
Collaboration between the cloud and the edge, making data more valuable
Recently, the 2023 Global Edge Computing Conference was held. Jin Fahua, co-founder and CPO of EMQ, delivered a speech entitled "EMQ Cloud-Edge Collaborative IoT Data Facility Solution", shared insights on cloud computing and edge computing empowering IoT, and introduced EMQ related exploration and experience.
As we all know, IoT is a trillion-level massive market, and the fields of cloud computing and edge computing are also very extensive. Every link in the industrial chain is looking for its own positioning. Using the cloud-edge collaboration architecture to efficiently, safely and quickly handle the connection of heterogeneous devices and the aggregation of massive IoT data, and provide more global elastic computing resources for digital transformation enterprises is the unique positioning of EMQ Exploration.
Founded in 2017, EMQ is a world-leading provider of open source IoT data infrastructure software, delivering open source cloud-native MQTT message servers and stream processing databases, providing highly reliable and high-performance real-time Connect, move, process and analyze, build a future-oriented IoT platform and application, and help enterprises transform and upgrade digitally, in real time, and intelligently.
With the popularization of smart terminals and the large-scale construction of 5G networks, IoT has shown great potential for development. IDC predicts that in 2026, China's IoT market will be close to 300 billion US dollars. Jinfahua analyzed that with the gradual popularization of IoT, data is showing explosive growth, and data transmission and management are facing new challenges.
It is reported that many IoT services currently collect data on the cloud, but it is not advisable to use the cloud across the board, and specific issues need to be analyzed in detail. For example, data going back and forth between the factory and the cloud will increase the delay, making it difficult to meet the high real-time requirements of industrial scenarios. For another example, with the increasing awareness of data security protection, people do not want to store all data in the cloud, but need to process it locally to ensure data security and isolation. In addition, considering transmission costs and blind spots in network coverage, in order to ensure real-time response, it is not necessary to upload all data to the cloud. Instead, processing at the edge can ensure data security and help users save costs.
To sum up the above analysis, it is not a single-choice question whether to process on the cloud or to process at the edge. In Jin Fahua's view, cloud and edge are a collaborative process, and only by allowing data to be calculated and processed where value should be generated can greater timeliness and value be generated. Therefore, cloud computing and edge computing will intersect with IoT, while cloud-edge collaboration and cloud native will all empower IoT.
Cloud native empowerment, more efficient and flexible data processing
What new concerns will arise when cloud native and IoT are cross-integrated?
In Jin Fahua's view, IoT cloud computing has three major characteristics. First, large concurrency, the scale of IoT devices is huge; second, high throughput, as the number of device connections increases, the throughput will also increase exponentially; third, low latency, which is the prerequisite for effective control of physical devices condition. The cloud-native features can support the elastic scaling of the scale of IoT devices, rapid recovery in the event of a failure, and ultimately achieve efficient utilization of devices and resources.
When it comes to IoT cloud native, the MQTT protocol is an unavoidable topic. The MQTT protocol is an Internet of Things communication protocol based on the publish/subscribe model. With the characteristics of being simple and easy to implement, supporting QoS, and small packets, it has become a well-deserved mainstream protocol in the field of Internet of Things, especially in industrial application scenarios, such as automobiles, manufacturing, Oil, natural gas, etc.
As the world's leading provider of open source IoT data infrastructure software, EMQ is an active supporter of the MQTT protocol. EMQX, developed based on the MQTT protocol, is currently connected to more than 100 million IoT devices worldwide, with more than 20 million downloads , with more than 40,000 active cluster deployments and 11K+ Github Stars per month, has become the most popular MQTT message server in the open source community, helping enterprises achieve digital transformation.
Edge native blessing, produce more chemical reactions
Furthermore, when edge native meets IoT, what kind of chemical reaction will it produce?
Jin Fahua said that the first is edge computing, which can provide real-time edge computing capabilities and process data at the edge with low latency, high security, and offline; the second is cloud-edge collaboration, including data collaboration capabilities and control collaboration between the edge and the cloud. capability; the third is the large-scale distributed operation and maintenance capability, which realizes the management and monitoring of a large number of computing and storage nodes in the cloud center.
From the perspective of realizing real-time stream computing at the edge, it is necessary to connect the data collected by the OT world with the upper-level IT system, provide business implementation methods based on high-level languages such as SQL, adopt visual stream processing editing capabilities, and provide scalable algorithms and advanced Abstract programming capabilities to achieve low latency, high security, and offline processing of data, and ultimately reduce the cost of using the entire bandwidth.
From the perspective of data and control collaboration, the first is to realize the collaboration of data from the edge to the cloud. Specifically, it can be synchronized from the edge to the cloud in real time, or it can be sent to the cloud at regular intervals through offline batch processing. The second is control collaboration, that is, the ability from cloud to edge, mainly to control edge software or applications from the cloud, and to achieve system-level management.
From the perspective of large-scale distributed operation and maintenance capabilities, by supporting various K8s-based frameworks, such as KubeEdge and OpenYurt, it can realize convenient and quick monitoring, management and upgrading of edge software, just like operating a mobile phone APP.
EMQ+X=EMQX: Exploring the Infinite Possibilities of the Internet of Things
EMQ focuses on the connection, movement, processing, and analysis of IoT devices. Currently, EMQ has served more than 20,000 enterprise users in more than 50 countries and regions around the world, of which more than 400 have become commercial paying customers. Typical customers include Huawei, China Dianke, China Mobile, China Telecom, State Grid, SAIC, GAC, TSMC, Foxconn, GM, Ericsson, Cisco, etc. At present, it has formed mature solutions for multiple industries such as Internet of Vehicles, Industrial Internet of Things, telecommunications, electric power, energy, and finance, helping a large number of global brands to break through technical bottlenecks and accelerate industrial transformation and upgrading.
Among them, the industrial Internet is one of the fields with the strongest demand and the most mature market. Jin Fahua said that when developing the MQTT broker open source software, EMQ found that many users in the open source community raised industrial needs, hoping to use digital technology to help the manufacturing process become smoother in the context of increasing labor costs, and at the same time I also hope to get better guarantees in terms of security and delay.
"The Internet of Things is a general demand. At present, users in the fields of industry, Internet of Vehicles, and new energy have a high willingness to invest, and there is a rigid demand." Jin Fahua believes. Based on insight into customer needs, EMQ has developed the IIoT cloud-side collaboration-edge industry protocol, which has been applied in the next-generation smart factory of a large steel factory. Based on this agreement, it is possible to collect, transmit, and upload data from the on-site control system and equipment of the factory, and then store and display the data in the cloud, as well as perform necessary calculation, configuration, and control, so as to establish a production data foundation and utilize cloud-side collaboration and integration The advantages of data management gradually form a data management method suitable for enterprises, and realize equipment autonomy, production line collaboration, hierarchical linkage, and automatic decision-making.
Looking at the world, my country is at the forefront of the world in digital applications of the Industrial Internet. According to Jin Fahua's analysis, just as my country's relatively backwardness in the popularization of credit cards has contributed to the rapid popularization of mobile payment, the relatively weak informatization foundation in the industrial field has instead brought opportunities for latecomers to win.
Of course, the Industrial Internet is only one of the most representative areas of the Internet of Things. EMQ has successful practice cases in the fields of Internet of Vehicles, operators, new energy, electric power, AIoT, finance and delivery, petroleum and petrochemical.
The Internet of Things is in the ascendant, and the potential of cloud-edge collaboration to empower the Internet of Things is limitless. EMQ is also full of confidence in the future prospects. "The difference between the company name EMQ and the product name EMQX is only one X. This is not a coincidence, but represents EMQ's confidence in expanding the infinite space of the Internet of Things and exploring the infinite possibilities of the future through EMQX." Jin Fahua said.