Since 2017, China Telecom has started the layout and construction of the IoT ecosystem. Based on the personalized, diversified and complex customer needs for information, we strived to build CTWing, an open platform for China Telecom's IoT capabilities. As the base of China Telecom's new digital infrastructure capabilities, CTWing brings together comprehensive capabilities such as China Telecom's cloud network integration, 5G connection management, device management, city awareness, end-to-end security, and so on.
Tianyi IoT and EMQ have combined our strengths and complemented each other's advantages to jointly build CTWing into the world's largest narrowband IoT service platform. EMQ's continuous optimization and delivery capability impressed us a lot. We are confident to build a billion scale IoT platform with EMQ in the future.
--Xu Zhang, Tianyi IoT
EMQX and China Telecom partnered to build CTWing, the world’s largest NB-IoT platform, capable of handling millions of concurrent device connections and a massive message throughput.
The Challenge: Connecting a Massive, Diverse IoT Ecosystem
As one of China's leading telecommunications providers, China Telecom embarked on a mission to build a unified, open IoT platform called CTWing to serve its diverse customer base. To succeed, the platform needed to overcome three critical challenges:
- Massive Device Access & Scalability: As the operator with the world's largest NB-IoT subscriber base, China Telecom required a platform that could handle millions of concurrent connections and ensure high stability and reliability.
- Cross-Industry, Multi-Protocol Unification: The platform needed to support a wide range of devices from various industries, each using different protocols and network types, and unify their access under a single solution.
- Multi-Tenancy & Data Management: To serve the digital needs of multiple industries and tenants, the platform had to provide robust, industry-specific data management, filtering, and storage capabilities.
The Solution: A Robust, Scalable IoT Infrastructure Powered by EMQX
China Telecom chose EMQX to provide the core messaging components for the CTWing platform. The partnership resulted in a highly scalable and resilient IoT infrastructure built on EMQX technology. The key components of the solution included:
- Scalable Multi-Protocol Gateway: EMQX's powerful gateway enabled unified access for hybrid devices across different industries, networks, and communication protocols, simplifying connectivity and management.
- Distributed Cluster Architecture: A multi-center, multi-active, and highly available distributed EMQX cluster was deployed to support tens of millions of device connections and a message throughput of up to a million TPS, ensuring horizontal scalability.
- Powerful Rule Engine: The built-in EMQX rule engine provides advanced data filtering, bridging, and persistence capabilities. This allowed the platform to tailor data storage and routing solutions for specific industries and tenants, facilitating seamless northbound application integrations.
The Results: Pioneering Global IoT Connectivity
Through its deep collaboration with EMQX, China Telecom successfully transformed CTWing into the world's largest group-level NB-IoT device access platform.
- Massive Scale: The platform now connects over ten million devices, proving its capacity to handle large-scale IoT deployments.
- Industry Leadership: The CTWing platform plays a critical role in promoting the integration of cloud and IoT technologies, driving digital transformation across various industries.
- Future-Proofing: The success of CTWing 5.0, launched in 2021, demonstrates the platform's evolution from a vertical enablement tool to a comprehensive ecosystem featuring 5G connectivity, quantum security, and benchmark applications, all accelerating the digital upgrade of industries.