As the key foundation for the deep integration of the digital economy with the real economy, industrial internet is a strategic infrastructure for promoting a new type of industrialization. In particular, the core industry scale of China's industrial internet has reached 1.35 trillion yuan, and it has achieved full coverage of all 41 major industrial categories, with the role of the identification and resolution system becoming increasingly prominent.
"Whether we talk about trust and intelligence, or the future era of artificial intelligence, identification will be the most critical and important general facility and service for the entire society," said Jin Jian, Director of the Industrial Internet and IoT Research Institute at the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), at the recently held 2024 Spark Ecosystem Conference.
Why is industrial internet identification important?
"The industrial internet identification and resolution system is an important component of the new infrastructure of the industrial internet and is of great significance for promoting the interconnection of the industrial internet across systems, links, and regions," said Wang Peng, a first-level inspector of the Information and Communication Management Bureau of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Currently, there are more than 410,000 identification service enterprises in China, with a registration volume close to 500 billion, which has increased by nearly 80% compared to the same period last year. The daily resolution has reached 150 million times, and the deployment of active identification carriers has exceeded 30 million. Integration application guides for industries such as ships, petrochemicals, electricity, equipment, and automobiles have been released, forming nine major categories of typical application scenarios, including production quality control, supply chain collaboration, and full life cycle management. These have gradually expanded from the field of economic construction to many fields such as safety production, emergency protection, and green and low-carbon development.
In the industrial internet identification and resolution system with a vast amount of data, it mainly includes two major parts: identification coding and resolution systems. Among them, identification coding is equivalent to an "ID card" or "house number," assigning a globally unique code to every physical entity (such as components, machines, products, etc.) and every digital object (such as algorithms, process records, key data) on the industrial internet. The resolution system queries and uniformly resolves network addresses and associated information based on identification coding, thus achieving precise positioning and providing basic support for applications such as supply chain management, traceability, and network precision collaboration across systems, enterprises, and regions.
In recent years, China's industrial internet identification and resolution system has been built from scratch, from small to large, and has basically been established. The national top-level nodes are stably operating, more than 330 second-level nodes have been launched, achieving full coverage of 31 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities), serving more than 400,000 enterprises, with daily resolutions exceeding 150 million times, and expanding to 46 industries, gradually becoming a key support for promoting the digital transformation of enterprises and the high-quality development of the economy and society.
At the beginning of this year, the "Industrial Internet Identification and Resolution System 'Penetrative' Action Plan (2024-2026)" was released, proposing that in the next three years, in terms of key indicators, the number of service enterprises will exceed 500,000, the application will expand to 60 industries, the cumulative registration volume will exceed 60 billion, and the daily resolution volume will reach more than 300 million times. In terms of key areas, preliminary large-scale applications will be achieved in production manufacturing, consumer goods industry, green and low-carbon, and safety production.
The Spark Chain Network, which was officially launched in August 2020, has also entered a new stage. At the aforementioned conference, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) released the Spark Strategy, which is the development strategy of the industrial internet identification.
"Industrial internet identification is to give an ID card to everything in the world, and to achieve the interconnection of all things. On this basis, the Spark Chain Network will give an identity identification to every digital object. Here we try to connect the physical world and the digital space, linking the two together. We give a full life cycle ID card to every object in the physical world, and we can also give an ID card to every object in the digital space," said Yu Xiaohui, Dean of the CAICT.
Jin Jian also explained that the Spark Strategy aims to build China-led digital space interconnection standards, core facilities, and service systems at the level of basic interconnection facilities represented by identification. It promotes the development advantage of Chinese industries through digitalization while promoting the construction of an equal and interconnected network economic space. In the future, the Spark Strategy will promote the construction of a complete system of identification systems oriented towards industrial interconnection, promote the large-scale development of China's industrial internet, and serve not only the new industrialization but also supply chain resilience, green and low-carbon, scientific and technological self-reliance, network security, cross-border data interconnection, and regional economic coordinated development and other important national policies.Why is the construction of key points important?
Currently, the Spark Chain Network, a new type of infrastructure based on the industrial internet identification resolution system, is being accelerated in construction. Super nodes have been established in 12 cities including Xiamen, Chongqing, Shenyang, Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, and Jinan, and the backbone nodes cover more than 60 cities. A number of typical application scenarios have been explored, such as digital assets, industrial finance, and judicial evidence.
For the next focus of the construction of the industrial internet identification resolution system, Wang Peng mentioned three aspects, including strengthening the high-level support of the basic foundation; deepening the deep-level expansion of key areas; and consolidating the collaborative support for scale development. For example, it is necessary to further enhance the capabilities of the national top-level nodes, multi-identifier compatibility, system monitoring, emergency protection, etc., strengthen the adaptation of the identification resolution system with industrial enterprise information systems, industrial internet platforms, industrial APPs and other software and hardware, support the integration and innovation of identification resolution with artificial intelligence, blockchain, big data, web3 and other technologies, and accelerate the formulation, verification, and application promotion of national standards, industry standards, and group standards for identification resolution.
Yu Xiaohui also said that the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology will create a healthy digital industry ecosystem from multiple aspects such as technology, application, business model, and international cooperation in the next step.
Taking specific innovative measures as an example, the "Product Digital Passport (DPP)" is a practice of promoting identification to the world. Liu Yang, the deputy chief engineer of the Industrial Internet and Internet of Things Research Institute of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, introduced that just like we need a passport when traveling between different countries and regions, the Product Digital Passport can describe the supply chain, manufacturing process, logistics transportation, environmental impact and other information of the product. The academic and industrial communities have basically completed most of the preparatory work for the Product Digital Passport.
Why is the Product Digital Passport so important? Liu Yang explained three points: the development of "smart connected products" requires richer descriptions and more convenient access; from the perspective of global trade, cross-border trade under the background of "digital and real integration" urgently needs a globally interconnected product data network; from the perspective of strengthening governance, new technology hotspots such as data cross-border and green and low-carbon need strong regulatory and governance technology support.
Liu Yang said that in the next step, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology will focus on key industries such as batteries, textiles, steel, and electronics, based on the basic principles of interconnectivity, security and trustworthiness, and international mutual recognition, and promote the construction of the Product Digital Passport registration management system, the exploration of Product Digital Passport industry application scenarios, and the coordination of international mutual recognition and interconnection of the Product Digital Passport.