With the development of social economy

distribution network is developing towards distribution internet of things（D-IoT） which is informationization and intelligence. As the basic component and core equipment of distribution internet of things

smart terminals have drawn great attentions from a large number of manufacturers

IT enterprises

scientific research institutes and national government departments. This paper introduces the fundamental characteristics

hardware components and software infrastructure of a smart terminal following the requirement of D-IoT. This paper also discusses the benefits brought by application of a typical smart terminal product deployed at the distribution transformer.The results of the pilot application show that the open architecture of intelligent terminals can not only support various data acquisition requirements of future distribution business

reduce equipment transformation costs and improve operation and maintenance efficiency

but also promote the management change of distribution network from passive to active.