State Grid Information and Telecommunications Group Co., Ltd. (SGITG) serves as the technology research and development arm supporting China's national power grid. As a pioneer in cloud, edge, and AI technologies for the power industry, SGITG is building an enterprise-level IoT management platform. This platform aims to define the management and access of massive, heterogeneous power terminals, supporting concurrent access for millions of devices to realize an intelligent IoT system.
The Challenge: The Scale and Complexity of the Power Grid
To build this unified IoT platform for its extensive network, SGITG had to overcome three major challenges presented by the power industry's unique demands:
- Massive Scale and High Concurrency: The power grid includes an enormous number of devices—from traditional transmission equipment to millions of smart meters and new IoT sensors. The platform needed to support millions to tens of millions of concurrent connections without compromising performance.
- Unified Protocol Integration: The industry relies on a mix of traditional power protocols like IEC 104 and IEC 61850, which are not compatible with modern IoT protocols. The new platform had to seamlessly integrate both legacy and new devices, enabling unified and efficient data transmission across the entire network.
- Efficient Cloud-Edge Collaboration: The adoption of cloud-edge architecture required a robust solution for real-time data processing at the edge and a reliable way to centrally manage and configure distributed edge devices.
The Solution: EMQX as the IoT Backbone
SGITG chose EMQX as the core access layer of the new power IoT platform, leveraging its capabilities to directly solve each of their key challenges:
- Solving Massive Scale with Distributed Clusters: EMQX's multi-node distributed cluster architecture was deployed to scale horizontally, supporting concurrent connections for millions of devices and ensuring both stable performance and high availability across the grid.
- Unifying Protocols with Flexible Plugins: EMQX provided native support for the traditional power protocols (IEC 104 and IEC 61850). The platform seamlessly converts data from these legacy protocols into the standardized MQTT protocol, enabling unified and efficient data transfer across the entire system.
- Enabling Cloud-Edge Collaboration: The solution integrated EMQ's edge products with EMQX in the cloud. This architecture allows for real-time data processing and filtering at the edge, reducing latency. Crucially, EMQX's remote management capabilities enable SGITG to centrally manage and configure all edge devices, streamlining operations and maintenance.
The Results: A Strategic Partnership for a Smarter Grid
The successful collaboration between SGITG and EMQX has yielded significant and tangible results:
- Technical Foundation: The EMQX-powered platform provides the core, scalable technical foundation for the next-generation smart power IoT system.
- Accelerated Development: The partnership drives joint research and development, rapidly promoting the development of scientific research projects and related power industry businesses.
- Market Leadership: By leveraging the technological expertise of the EMQX team, SGITG strengthens its market advantage, positioning the group to co-create technically advanced power IoT products that set a new industry standard.