In the first half of 2026, a batch of new terms has emerged in the industrial communication field—Industrial AI Agents, AaaS, 4T Convergence, SPE, Vehicle-Road-Cloud Integration, PV "Four Capabilities", and more. None of these terms were created out of thin air; behind each one lies the driving force of a specific policy document. This article breaks down and thoroughly explains the mapping relationship of "Policy → New Terms → Industry".
I. Why Are There So Many New Terms in 2026?
In one word: policy density.
2026 marks the inaugural year of the "15th Five-Year Plan". From January to June, at least eight heavyweight documents were intensively released.
These documents do not operate in isolation—they all address the same core issue: using AI to reshape the underlying logic of industrial communication. Each document introduces several new terms, which together form the industry's linguistic framework for 2026.
II. Eight Policy Lines, Eight Sets of New Terms
Timeline of Industrial Communication Policy Releases in 2026
Clue 1: High-Quality Development of the Industrial Internet (The "General Program" by Eight Ministries)
Scenario: Communication Networks Driven by Industrial AI Agents
Document: "Implementation Opinions on Promoting the High-Quality Development of the Industrial Internet", jointly issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and seven other departments on June 30, 2026.
This is the highest-level document in the industrial communication field in 2026, serving as the master roadmap for the "15th Five-Year Plan" period. It introduces multiple core concepts at once:
- New-type Industrial Network — Not a single type of network, but a collective term for the converged networking of multiple technologies such as 5G, TSN (Time-Sensitive Networking), SPE (Single-Pair Ethernet), and industrial optical networks. In the past, saying "Industrial Ethernet" was enough; now, you must say "New-type Industrial Network".
- 4T Convergence — IT (Information Technology) + CT (Communication Technology) + OT (Operational Technology) + DT (Data Technology). Previously, IT/OT convergence was considered cutting-edge; in 2026, it is directly upgraded to the convergence of four technologies.
- Industrial AI Agent — An industrial autonomous decision-making entity centered on large models, which can be embedded in PLCs, SCADA systems, and switches. Simply put, while switches used to only forward data, in the future, a switch might house an "AI brain" capable of optimizing network-wide traffic autonomously.
- Chain-Network Synergy — Coordinated advancement of the industrial chain and the Industrial Internet network, where "chain-based transformation" replaces "point-by-point modification".
- Intelligent Transformation, Digital Transformation, and Network Connection — Intelligent upgrading + digital transformation + networked connection, combining three actions into a single term.
The document also sets two quantifiable targets: by 2030, build 50,000 industrial 5G private networks, and achieve a breakthrough of 2.5 trillion RMB in the added value of core industries.
Who is affected: The entire industry, especially industrial automation and intelligent manufacturing.
Clue 2: Pilot Program for Industrial 5G Standalone Private Networks
Scenario: 5G Standalone Private Network in a Petrochemical Refining Plant
Document: "Notice on Carrying out the Pilot Program for Industrial 5G Standalone Private Networks", drafted in April 2026 and issued in June, jointly released by five departments: MIIT, the Ministry of Transport, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC), the National Energy Administration (NEA), and the State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND).
The term "5G private network" is not new, but "Industrial 5G Standalone Private Network" is newly defined in 2026:
An enterprise-exclusive 5G network that can operate independently of the public network, where industrial enterprises take the lead in building key facilities such as the access network and core network.
The keyword is "standalone"—previously, enterprises building 5G private networks usually had to lease frequencies and core networks from operators. Now, the policy allows enterprises to build, manage, and maintain the network themselves, physically isolating it from the public network.
This document also includes several network technologies in the policy side by side for the first time:
- SPE (Single-Pair Ethernet) — Based on the IEEE 802.3cg standard, a single twisted pair can transmit data and supply power over a distance of one kilometer. Previously, thick cables and multi-core wires were required at industrial sites; SPE simplifies this directly to a single wire pair.
- Industrial Optical Network — An all-optical industrial network that converges with 5G/Ethernet/TSN for networking.
- Zero Trust — A security architecture that trusts no terminal by default and requires verification for every access.
- Intrinsic Security — Devices possess inherent security capabilities, rather than relying on external firewalls.
The pilot covers six major industries: raw materials, equipment manufacturing, consumer goods, electronic information, national defense science and technology, and energy and transportation. The pilot period is two years.
Who is affected: Large enterprises in oil and petrochemicals, coal, rail transit, national defense and military industry, etc.
Clue 3: AI + Information and Communication
Document: "Implementation Opinions on the Innovative Development of 'AI + Information and Communication' (2026-2028)", issued by the MIIT on June 3, 2026.
This document focuses on the AI transformation of the communication industry itself—not using communication technology to empower other industries, but making the communication networks intelligent themselves.
New Terms:
- High-Level Autonomy of Information and Communication Networks — By 2028, communication networks will initially achieve AI-driven autonomous operations with minimal human intervention.
- AaaS (Agent as a Service) — AI agents are provided as standardized external services, shifting enterprises from "selling equipment" to "selling capabilities".
- AIP (Agent Interconnection Protocol) — The "lingua franca" among AI agents, enabling agents from different manufacturers to communicate with each other.
- Intelligent Internet — The next-generation Internet system with AI agents as nodes, with IPv6 as the foundation.
Who is affected: Communication equipment vendors, operators, and Industrial Internet platform providers.
Clue 4: Standardized Application of AI Agents
Document: "Implementation Opinions on the Standardized Application and Innovative Development of AI Agents", issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) on May 8, 2026.
This is the first national-level policy document specifically targeting AI agents, providing the official definition of an AI agent:
An AI agent is an intelligent system equipped with autonomous capabilities for perception, memory, decision-making, interaction, and execution.
New Terms:
- Embodied AI Agent — AI agents with a physical entity that can perform tasks in the physical world, such as inspection robots and humanoid robots. This is distinct from purely software-based AI agents.
- Behavioral Fencing — Rules embedded within the AI agent to restrict what it cannot do. It is like drawing a circle for the AI; stepping out of the circle triggers a circuit breaker.
- Swarm Collaboration — Collaboration mechanisms among multiple AI agents.
- Digital Identity for AI Agents — Each AI agent has a unique identifier that can be registered, searched, and traced.
Who is affected: Industrial robots, inspection drones, mine automation, and security.
Clue 5: PV "Four Capabilities"
Scenario: "Four Capabilities" Communication Network for PV Power Stations
Policy Basis: National Energy Administration's Management Measures for Distributed PV, mandatory from January 1, 2026.
"Four Capabilities" is not an abbreviation, but four "capabilities":
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Simply put, distributed PV used to be a "blind box"—the grid didn't know how much power you generated or when you stopped. Now, power stations are required to be "observable, measurable, adjustable, and controllable".
In 2026, about 60% of existing distributed power stations nationwide have not yet met the standards, kicking off a period of concentrated renovation.
Who is affected: PV inverter manufacturers, communication module manufacturers, and power station O&M providers.
Clue 6: AI + Transportation
Scenario: TSN Vehicle-to-Ground Communication Network for Rail Transit
Document: "Action Plan for Innovating Typical Application Scenarios of 'AI + Transportation'", June 2026, jointly released by the Ministry of Transport, the National Railway Administration, the Civil Aviation Administration of China, the State Post Bureau, and China State Railway Group.
New Terms:
- Vehicle-Road-Cloud Integration — Replaces the previous "Vehicle-Road Coordination". The difference is: Vehicle-Road Coordination involves two dimensions (vehicle and road), whereas Vehicle-Road-Cloud Integration is a three-layer architecture comprising vehicle-side intelligence, roadside perception, and cloud-side collaboration, adding the "cloud" layer.
- Intelligent Comprehensive Three-Dimensional Transportation Network — An AI unified dispatch network for five modes of transport: highway, railway, waterway, civil aviation, and postal services.
- Low-Altitude Intelligent Transportation — Intelligent logistics in low-altitude economy scenarios, such as drone delivery and inspection.
- Intelligent Navigation of Ship Fleets — Multiple ships forming a fleet for intelligent coordinated navigation.
The first batch of 41 key scenarios will be deployed in 2026, covering intelligent monitoring of highway operating conditions, intelligent train control systems, and low-altitude intelligent transportation.
Who is affected: Rail transit, intelligent transportation, low-altitude economy, and port shipping.
Clue 7: Revision of Coal Mine Safety Regulations
Scenario: 5G Communication System in Underground Coal Mines
Document: New version of the "Coal Mine Safety Regulations", revised in August 2025 and implemented on February 1, 2026.
This is a systematic revision after nearly a decade, marking the first time underground 5G communication systems are included in safety regulations. This means 5G is no longer just a "bonus" for coal mines, but a compliance requirement.
The supporting National Mine Safety Administration also released the draft "Technical Specifications for 5G Communication Systems in Underground Coal Mines" for comments, proposing specific indicators for underground 5G coverage, reliability, and explosion-proof performance.
Who is affected: Coal mining enterprises, mine communication equipment vendors, and 5G underground coverage solution providers.
Document: "Action Plan for Promoting the Innovative Development of the IoT Industry (2026-2028)", March 2026, jointly issued by the MIIT and eight other departments.
New Terms:
- Passive IoT — IoT tags that do not require batteries, communicating by reflecting base station signals, costing only a few cents. In 2026, they will be deployed at scale in scenarios such as warehouse inventory, production line digitalization, and logistics tracking.
- RedCap (Reduced Capability) — The "lightweight" version of 5G modules, trading some capabilities for lower costs, with prices dropping by 60% compared to traditional 5G modules. Suitable for scenarios like sensors and video surveillance that do not require full-spec 5G.
Who is affected: Sensor manufacturers, module manufacturers, warehousing and logistics, and industrial production lines.
III. Summary in One Diagram
2026 Policy → New Terms → Industry Mapping Diagram
2026 Industrial Communication Policy New Terms: Comprehensive Scenario Map
IV. As an Equipment Vendor, How Do We See This?
After sorting out these eight policy lines, the most direct feeling is: the policies in 2026 are redefining the five words "industrial communication equipment".
As Maiwe Communication, an industrial communication equipment manufacturer, we have been tracking policy trends and translating them into inputs for product planning. Port counts, redundant ring networks, wide temperature and voltage ranges, and protection ratings—these remain our basic skills and the fundamental indicators that every piece of equipment must pass before leaving the factory. However, policies have raised the ceiling for the industry, and our product roadmap is moving upward in sync. More importantly, many of the new capabilities mentioned in the policies are not "still in planning" for us; we already have corresponding products being sold and used:
New-type Industrial Network: TSN Product Line is Ready, and Domestic Substitution is Implemented
The "New-type Industrial Network" includes TSN, SPE, industrial optical networks, and 5G standalone private networks in the pilot notice. In the future, clients will not just write "Industrial Ethernet Switch" but will specify "Industrial Network Nodes Supporting TSN Scheduling". Our TSN Industrial Ethernet Switch product line is already in place, supporting core TSN capabilities such as time synchronization and priority scheduling. Meanwhile, our CISCOM7000 series of fully localized switches has been mass-produced—based on fully localized tri-core/high-performance chips, covering everything from the access layer to the backbone layer, directly meeting the "domestic substitution priority" bidding requirements for scenarios such as mining and energy storage.
Coal Mine Safety Regulations: Intrinsically Safe Product Line is Ready
The Coal Mine Safety Regulations mandate underground 5G communication, making intrinsically safe switches/gateways for mines a rigid demand. Our intrinsically safe Ethernet switches and intrinsically safe 5G CPEs have been deployed in mine scenarios, meeting explosion-proof certification standards and adapting to the harsh underground environment with high interference and high humidity. The supporting intrinsically safe wireless APs can build underground Wi-Fi coverage, supporting business systems such as personnel positioning and video surveillance.
PV "Four Capabilities": Edge Computing Gateways are Naturally Adapted
The PV "Four Capabilities" require communication gateways on the power station side to support millisecond-level response and second-level data upload. Our industrial gateway series is naturally adapted to this scenario—for example, the MaxGate800pro series, which is equipped with a 4-core ARM Cortex-A55 processor (2GHz), integrating switch + router + serial server functions. It supports bidirectional conversion of the Modbus protocol and MQTT protocol docking with cloud platforms. Its built-in edge computing capabilities can locally process collected data and quickly execute dispatch instructions. With an interface configuration of 12-channel RS485 + 4-channel CAN + 26-channel I/O, a single device can complete the data collection and control dispatch for "observable, measurable, adjustable, and controllable" on the power station side.
Vehicle-Road-Cloud Integration: M12 Series Verified in Rail Transit
Vehicle-Road-Cloud Integration and rail transit scenarios have extremely high requirements for equipment shock resistance and wide temperature operation. Our Admas series M12 Industrial Ethernet Switches (such as Admas7212G-M12-12GT and Admas8012G-M12-12GT) use M12 aviation connector connections, meeting the rail transit industry's shock resistance standards, operating across a wide temperature range of -40℃~+70℃, and supporting MW-Ring ring network redundancy (<20ms self-healing). These products have been actually deployed in subway PIS systems and train control systems. The industrial-grade communication backbone network required for roadside RSUs and edge gateways is exactly where these products come into play.
5G Standalone Private Network: 5G Router + Edge Gateway Combination Solution
The Industrial 5G Standalone Private Network pilot requires the petrochemical, coal, and transportation industries to build independent networks. We provide a combination solution of 5G Industrial Routers + Industrial Gateways: the 5G router handles wireless access, while the industrial gateway series handles protocol conversion and edge computing. It supports multi-network access of 5G/4G/Wi-Fi 6 and can dock with platforms such as Alibaba Cloud, Huawei Cloud, and Maiwe Cloud. In petrochemical plants, this solution can build a 5G private network communication backbone independent of the public network.
Security Capabilities: From "Bonus" to "Standard Configuration"
The standalone private network pilot notice explicitly mentions "Zero Trust" and "Intrinsic Security". Among our mainstream industrial switch categories, multiple models can provide professional security functions such as 802.1X authentication, ACL access control, SNMPv3 secure network management, and TACACS+; among them, the core flagship product series has also completed software source code security audits, strengthening device security and trustworthiness from the source. When we talk about security, we no longer just stay at the level of "port isolation", but begin to answer harder questions: Does the switch support Zero Trust architecture? Does it have an intrinsic security mechanism? These capabilities are being continuously deepened in our next-generation product planning.
At the end of the day, what equipment vendors fear most is not falling behind in technology, but the market language changing while you haven't. This wave of new policy terms in 2026 is essentially redefining customer needs. What we have always been doing is translating policy language into product language—when the policy says "New-type Industrial Network", we break it down into specific capabilities such as TSN scheduling, SPE access, 5G convergence, and industrial optical networks, mapping them item by item to our product lines. From industrial switches to industrial gateways, from intrinsically safe equipment to the M12 shock-resistant series, from localized chips to edge computing platforms—for every line drawn by the policies, we have products to match. Understanding in advance and aligning in advance allows us to take the initiative in the next round of bidding—not passively responding to the client's requirement list, but proactively telling the client: The "New-type Industrial Network" you want, we are already building.
The eight policy lines and over 30 new terms sorted out in this article all come from official documents released from January to June 2026. Policies are continuously updating, and we will continue to track the latest developments from departments such as the MIIT, CAC, NEA, and the Ministry of Transport, aligning our product planning in a timely manner.