Xi’an Creates a Smart Community With Huawei CloudCampus Solution

Background

Xi’an, one of the four great ancient capitals of China, is a popular tourist destination for its wealth of historical sites — so many, that first-time visitors may have a hard time deciding what to see. The ancient Terracotta Warriors and Horses are obviously the main attraction. On the other hand, for those who follow their taste buds, someone familiar with Xi’an would certainly recommend Muslim Street for its delicious local delicacies and snacks. As a landmark scenic community, Muslim Street has become a big draw for Xi’an. The local tourism authority wants to facilitate efficient merchant operations, attract more tourists, and support both groups with the ultimate Wi-Fi experience.

Muslim Street is actually a collective name for several streets in the Xi’an Muslim community. The whole area is packed with restaurants and food stalls, where visitors can sample an extensive variety of local dishes. It is also an ideal place for locals and tourists to relax and enjoy the cultural atmosphere of a community with a long history.

Challenges

The Muslim Street wireless coverage project is a smart scenic spot project developed by the Xi’an Lianhu District Tourism Authority and Shaanxi Intro Network Technology Co., Ltd. This project was started to develop a WeChat public account, conduct e-mall operations, build mini programs (or applets), and deliver Wi-Fi coverage. A key idea was to incorporate the new Internet Plus concepts into traditional business operations and bring tourists, merchants, and tourism enterprises together in a common space. Through big data analytics of tourism and purchase data, this project is required to achieve accurate customer profiling, provide detailed data support for the development of tourism, build a smart ecosystem, and ensure closed-loop virtuous business operations.

The fundamental goals of this project are to support scenic-spot businesses and tourists so that more people can enjoy the area. To this end, the project’s key requirements include various upper-layer applications, simplified network management, and seamless access to a fast wireless network.

Solution

Huawei provided the CloudCampus Solution, which is capable of leveraging Software-Defined Networking (SDN) technology. Huawei’s CloudCampus Solution has the following features:

• A full series of Huawei plug-and-play network devices that are all cloud managed: These devices provide powerful technical support for applying the CloudCampus Solution to Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs), branch offices, and midsize-to-large campus networks.
• End-to-end automatic cloud management: An online cloud network-planning tool automatically designs deployment solutions. The cloud management platform automatically delivers configurations. When the network is set up, the network devices and cloud management platform automatically process users’ network access requests. The cloud management platform, along with a mobile App, monitor network and service status while troubleshooting faults. This end-to-end automatic cloud management brings unprecedented simplicity and convenience that help reduce CAPEX and OPEX.
• Mobile cloud management for better user experiences: A mobile App simplifies wireless deployment by scanning barcodes, and facilitates wireless heatmap acceptance, network health checks, and rogue Access Point (AP) detection. These capabilities ensure that user experiences are unaffected by wireless network deployment and O&M.
• Support for various upper-layer applications: The cloud management platform provides open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for technology partners to offer Value-Added Services (VASs) to users. The APIs make it practical to expand the service scope as needed while delivering a complete set of services.

Benefits

According to feedback from the Muslim Street wireless coverage project, this solution fulfills the project goals of providing rich upper-layer applications, simplified network management, and seamless access to a fast wireless network. The Huawei solution provides better user experiences, simpler O&M, and more agile services. Free network services are provided for visitors, which enhance their experience and encourage loyalty to local businesses. Convenient technologies are available for administration of the entire community. All these capabilities contribute to higher levels of comprehensive services, increased administration efficiency, and better brand image perceptions of Muslim Street.

The excellent Wi-Fi services in Muslim Street, enabled by the Huawei CloudCampus Solution, demonstrate how today’s technology can provide smart services that benefit everyone — even the residents and visitors to a centuries-old community. The Huawei CloudCampus Solution has also been applied to more than 200 other customers, including Aihui Health, Dongfeng Honda, and LiDL. Huawei continues to create greater value for more customers with this next-generation innovative solution.