A Millennium of Herbal Aroma, One Network to Carry It ForwardAINOPOL transmits heritage through light, reviving the thousand-year herbal aroma in the digital age.

Across the vast plains of Inner Mongolia, the wind sweeps over the sea of grass, carrying a wisp of timeless herbal fragrance.

Rooted in Tibetan incense, this herbal aroma has, over centuries, absorbed the essence of Han, Mongolian, Tibetan and Manchu cultures. Taking firm root in Inner Mongolia, it embodies the wisdom of grassland peoples conversing with nature—herb gathering, processing, blending, and aging. Every craft bears the dedication of artisans and the gifts of nature.

Today, in Babai Village, Jinhe Town, Saihan District, Hohhot, beside Babai Lake, an Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Herbal Aroma Industrial Park of over 2,600 square meters is bringing this heritage into a new era.

Yet for a comprehensive park integrating cultural inheritance, industrial incubation and modern offices, smooth operation requires more than lingering herbal scent and craftsmanship—it needs an invisible “meridian”: a stable, high-efficiency network covering the entire site.

From the warm golden glow of herbal workshops to the cool blue pulse of the data center, a millennium-spanning dialogue of “light” unfolds quietly in the park.

I. Five Critical Network Challenges in a Vast Park

As a newly built project, the Inner Mongolia ICH Herbal Aroma Industrial Park has been designed to smart park standards from the very blueprint. Integrating herb cultivation displays, ICH workshop experiences, cultural and creative commerce, and startup incubation offices, its complex scenarios and wide coverage impose stringent requirements on network infrastructure. The project team identified five core challenges:

Long-Distance Power Supply: Traditional Solutions Fall Short

Herb cultivation zones, ICH workshops, visitor centers and startup office buildings are distributed hundreds of meters apart. Traditional Power over Ethernet (PoE) only reaches 100 meters, and practical construction losses further shorten the effective distance. Adding power outlets at every node drives up cabling costs dramatically, while scattered power points create a continuous maintenance burden. “Network without power” is the first major obstacle.

Complex Scenarios: WiFi Coverage Full of Gaps

Outdoor herb viewing areas span large spaces. Dense wooden beams in ICH workshops severely weaken signals. Semi-open cultural promenades have long visitor routes and narrow spaces, while closed exhibition halls require high-density concurrent access. Ordinary APs struggle across diverse scenarios, leaving blind spots and weak coverage everywhere.

Roaming Visitors: Seamless Connectivity a Must-Have

Tour routes feature “changing scenery with every step”—visitors move from herb fields to ICH experience halls, then to cultural shops. Constant reconnection or unexpected drops ruin the experience, rendering digital guides, QR-code audio tours and live sharing useless.

Startup Offices: Private Network Built from Scratch

Planned incubation spaces will house ICH creative teams, e-commerce operations and study tour agencies. Wired office networks, internal resource sharing, video conferencing and cloud collaboration demand stability, security and bandwidth far beyond visitor WiFi. One network must balance **visitor convenience** and **office reliability**.

Real-Name Authentication: Compliance Is Mandatory

As a public cultural venue, the park’s WiFi must enforce user real-name authentication and 180-day log retention—hard requirements under **Ministry of Public Security Order No. 151** and the **Cybersecurity Law**. Non-compliance leads to penalties. Ensuring “identity matches user” is an unavoidable compliance threshold for open parks.

Perimeter Security: A Sword Hanging Over Open Networks

Exposed directly to the public internet, the park network faces risks of external attacks, malware and data breaches without robust perimeter defenses. A compromised perimeter endangers visitor information and office data. Building a trusted, controllable boundary is the foundation of the park’s digital security.

For a new park, a reliable network is not an optional extra—it is **part of the foundation**, directly determining its future digital operation capabilities and the upper limit of user experience.

II. Optoelectronic Breakthrough: AINOPOL All-Optical Solution Unlocks the Park’s “Dual Scenarios”

Facing these challenges, the project team rejected traditional copper cabling. Instead, starting from the physical layer, it customized an all-optical network centered on **photoelectric composite cables**, meeting both public WiFi coverage and private office network needs.

POF Replaces PoE: One Cable Carries Both Light and Power

Traditional copper solutions face a fundamental contradiction: Ethernet cables transmit data but only up to 100 meters; fiber spans tens of kilometers but cannot conduct electricity. In large parks, **data transmission** and **power delivery** have always operated as two separate systems—double the cables, double the cost.

The photoelectric composite cable resolves this contradiction in one stroke. Within a single cable, optical fibers handle gigabit to 10-gigabit data transmission, while copper cores deliver long-distance power—**one cable, both light and power**. APs and terminals can operate stably hundreds of meters from the machine room, breaking free from the physical limits of power supply radius.

Deployed in machine rooms and floor weak-current rooms, optical sockets provide power to ceiling and wall-mounted APs nearby, eliminating “last-mile” power issues. Wherever the optical cable reaches, network and power arrive simultaneously—no more hunting for power outlets.

Scientific AP Placement + Multi-Type APs: Full-Coverage WiFi Without Blind Spots

To address coverage challenges across outdoor herb fields, indoor workshops, exhibition halls and cultural blocks, the solution adopts a differentiated AP deployment strategy:

- **ZH-APX3P Wireless AP**: Deployed in office areas, with four downstream ports for wired terminals, supporting diverse business needs.

- **ZH-AP30006S-M Wireless AP**: Deployed in exhibition areas, corridors, public zones and meeting rooms for high-density scenarios, ensuring smooth connectivity for many users and devices simultaneously.

The two AP models are strategically placed at key nodes in exhibition halls, workshops and promenades, with creative wall mounting in some areas to balance coverage and aesthetics.

All APs receive power remotely via POF through photoelectric composite cables, requiring no additional power lines—deployment is simple and efficient.

Centralized Control via AC Controller: Seamless Roaming with Unnoticeable Handover

For seamless roaming during visitor movement, the **ZH-AC300R (Ultra) AC Controller** acts as the “commander-in-chief” of the wireless network. It centrally manages channel planning, power adjustment, SSID distribution and firmware upgrades for hundreds of APs across the park—all from a single interface.

With this controller, hundreds of APs no longer operate independently but as a coordinated team: automatic device discovery, unified configuration delivery, intelligent channel interference avoidance. Maintenance staff manage the entire network with a few clicks.

Visitors move from herb fields to ICH halls to cultural shops with **unnoticeable, continuous connectivity**—no lag, drops or reconnections. Smart guides, online interaction and live cultural services run smoothly end-to-end.

VLAN Isolation + Dual SSID: One Physical Network, Two Logical Networks

For startup office network requirements, the solution uses a **shared physical infrastructure with logical isolation** architecture.

The **ZH-AC500 (Ultra) Router** handles external bandwidth access for the entire park. Through VLAN division and policy routing, visitor and office traffic are completely separated: while visitors stream short videos among herb fields, startup teams hold HD video conferences without interference.

The **ZH-CS5530TGX-SI Core Switch** serves as the park’s data “heart,” managing LAN switching and forwarding. With gigabit to 10-gigabit backplane bandwidth, it ensures high-speed, congestion-free data flow across zones—whether 4K video streaming in exhibition areas or multi-terminal concurrent access in offices.

- **Public Zones**: Broadcast a visitor SSID.

- **Office Zones**: Overlay an enterprise SSID.

One physical network, two **logically isolated** networks with no cross-interference. For visitors: convenient, fast, stable public internet. For internal teams: a secure, independent, low-interference private office network ensuring safe data transmission and efficient collaboration.

Real-Name Authentication + Log Retention: Complying with Public Security Order No. 151

As an open cultural and tourism park, public WiFi strictly enforces real-name authentication and online behavior log retention as required by regulations.

- Deep integration with **Portal Authentication**: Supports SMS verification and WeChat one-click authorization for fast identity verification, ensuring **identity-user consistency** and traceability.

- Full compliance log retention: All user online behavior data is retained. Logs are stored in encrypted, independent local storage, automatically kept for the full required 180 days. Data is tamper-proof and deletion-proof, supporting real-time tracing and one-click compliance report generation, fully meeting the mandatory standards of **Public Security Order No. 151** and the **Cybersecurity Law

This mitigates operational risks such as non-compliance rectification and administrative fines. In the event of network public opinion, violations or information security incidents, complete log evidence can be quickly retrieved to provide valid legal tracing proof—balancing convenient public access and full-network security compliance.

Egress Firewall: Building an Integrated “Connect-and-Secure” Solution

To address network security risks from open public access, diverse terminals and frequent data exchange, the solution deploys a **security multi-service gateway with integrated firewall capabilities** at the network egress, building a comprehensive, layered security defense system.

- Integrated **IPS (Intrusion Prevention System)** and **AV (Antivirus)** capabilities.

- Bidirectional packet filtering and intelligent URL access filtering create multi-layered, in-depth defenses.

- Real-time identification and blocking of external network attacks, malicious access and non-compliant behavior, closing security vulnerabilities at the network source.

Leveraging the inherent anti-eavesdropping and anti-theft properties of fiber transmission at the physical layer, combined with **802.1X/MAC dual access control** at the access layer and unified egress firewall + full-network behavior auditing, the solution achieves full-network compliance without additional security hardware stacking.

The overall architecture balances transmission efficiency and data security. While ensuring stable, high-speed network operation, it builds a robust “secure connectivity” moat for the entire park—**fast transmission, strict protection, controllable behavior, interceptable risks**.

III. Unlocking New Smart Potential for the ICH Park

With infrastructure in place, daily operations take on a new dimension:

Visitors stroll from the Hundred Herbs Garden to incense-making workshops with **AR herb guides** active on their phones, audio explanations following their steps. They scan QR codes to learn the stories of each herb, staying connected as they move with **unnoticeable roaming**—no more frustrating dead zones around corners.

Artisans live-stream ancient techniques such as horn shaping and pottery jar fermentation in crisp, uninterrupted HD. The thousand-year herbal fragrance travels via fiber to millions of viewers on screen.

Creative teams, e-commerce streamers and study tour agencies move into the park without building their own networks. Connecting to the park WiFi, they conduct video conferences, cloud collaboration and large file transfers effortlessly. New teams are online within half a day.

On the large management center screen, real-time network status and device availability across all zones are clearly displayed. Maintenance staff command the entire network with a few clicks—fault alerts and remote troubleshooting save time and effort. Security surveillance feeds are transmitted 24/7 in high definition, every frame crystal clear.

A network connects more than devices.

The network deployment at the Inner Mongolia ICH Herbal Aroma Industrial Park is far more than just “providing WiFi.” This high-bandwidth, low-latency optical network covering the entire site is the **digital nervous system** of a smart park:

- It provides real-time interactive channels for smart guides.

- It reserves sufficient bandwidth for AR-based ICH restoration experiences.

- It removes upstream bottlenecks for startup teams’ online operations and live-stream sales.

- It lays a solid foundation for innovative applications such as digital twins, smart security and IoT sensing.

When visitors hold up phones in herb fields to stream artisans’ craftsmanship to audiences thousands of miles away; when entrepreneurs in offices share grassland culture with the world over a stable office network—this invisible optical network quietly fulfills its mission.

**Let traditions be seen, let culture be connected.**

With one photoelectric composite cable, AINOPOL paves a digital highway for millennia-old intangible cultural heritage to enter the digital age.