The mobile phone direct-to-satellite communication service and its technology are still in the early stage of exploration. For some consumers, this function may not be used for a lifetime, but its rigid demand is obvious. In areas where it is convenient to deploy, a mobile phone that can directly connect to satellite communication is an indispensable equipment for explorers and scientific researchers.
◎Reporter Liu Yan Zhang Qiang
Recently, the first Huawei Mate 50 smartphone that supports the Beidou-3 short message communication service attracted attention at the "Endeavor New Era" theme achievement exhibition held at the Beijing Exhibition Center.
The smartphone autumn conference, which is mainly characterized by the "collision period" of major mobile phone manufacturers, is an important window to observe the industry trend and technological innovation.
This year, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Huawei) and Apple's flagship mobile phones are equipped with related functions that can communicate with satellites, which promotes the concept of direct connection of mobile phones to satellites.
Driven by mobile phone manufacturers, coupled with people's desire to never lose contact and always be online, satellite communications have once again entered the public eye.
Smartphones connect to the "Heaven and Earth Line"
As the world's first popular smartphone that supports Beidou satellite information, Huawei Mate 50 can still send text and location information in an environment without terrestrial network signal coverage, and support the generation of trajectory maps.
As early as before the release of Huawei's new phone, Yu Chengdong, Huawei's executive director and CEO of the terminal business, had warmed up: Mate 50 will have a "piercing the sky" technology, and the Beidou short message applied by this technology will be provided by the national defense. The satellite radio determination service ground system developed by the Beidou team of the University of Science and Technology is received.
The short message communication service is the biggest feature of the Beidou system that distinguishes it from other satellite navigation systems. However, the short message communication capability of Beidou-1 and Beidou-2 is a maximum of 120 Chinese characters at a time, which is difficult to meet various scenarios and applications. User needs.
Li Jingyuan, head of the short message technology of the Beidou team at the National Defense University of Science and Technology, said that the increase in data volume and the continuous expansion of demand mean that the project team cannot directly inherit the Beidou-2 signal processing architecture, but can only achieve breakthroughs in the signal system, short message Communication capabilities can change from quantitative to qualitative.
The satellite radio determination service ground system developed by the team can support the transmission of up to 1,000 Chinese characters each time, and supports voice and photo transmission.
Compared with Beidou-2, the system has increased the short message communication service capacity by about 10 times.
In addition, the integrated use of mobile communications and Beidou short messages has also effectively improved the communication service capabilities of Beidou short messages.
Although Beidou short messages have entered the public mobile phones, there is already a certain technical foundation and operational support, but Li Jingyuan admitted that Beidou short messages use high-orbit satellites for signal transmission and reception, and the mobile phone communicates with Beidou satellites 36,000 kilometers away, the signal is still A little weak, usually as a means of emergency communication such as search and rescue.
At present, the construction of the low-orbit satellite Internet system is accelerating. It is believed that in the near future, mobile phone users can enjoy higher-speed, larger-capacity message and voice and image communication services through low-orbit satellites.
Compared with high-orbit satellites, low-orbit satellites with large bandwidth, high-performance global coverage, low-latency, and low-cost global interconnection services have become a hot spot for technology giants, such as Tesla CEO Musk's "Star Chain Plan". ", is to build a new track for the Internet industry with "mobile phone + low-orbit satellite communication".
However, if this path is to go through, continuous efforts are required. At least from the perspective of the terminal of the "Star Chain Project", it needs the support of a dish antenna with a diameter of 0.48 meters, and ordinary smartphones cannot be used as terminals.
Mobile phone directly connected to satellite can be used as a supplement to terrestrial communication
Simply put, the direct connection of the mobile phone to satellite communication means "putting the base station on the satellite". Whether it is Apple's or Huawei's "satellite mobile phone", it is only a relatively simple solution for the direct connection of the mobile phone to the satellite communication service. It's a far cry, but industry insiders still praise mobile phone manufacturers.
According to Peng Jian, deputy director of the Radio Management Institute of CCID Research Institute, the sales volume of the smartphone industry has grown slowly year-on-year, the space for innovation and development is saturated, and the competitive environment is complex.
Therefore, aiming at forward-looking and revolutionary innovative technologies, accelerating the integration and development of the mobile phone industry and the low-orbit satellite communication industry, which can meet the ever-escalating consumption demands of users, is an important layout to seize the commanding heights of the future mobile phone industry.
Like the IRIDIUM satellite mobile communication constellation system and the Globalstar satellite mobile communication system, although they have not really entered the consumer market, they once set off a wave of industry trends in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
"However, at present, the function of mobile phones directly connecting to satellites is still a supplement to terrestrial communications." Peng Jian pointed out that its commercial growth space is closely related to the subsequent improvement of related fields such as technology, law, and application.
"The function is relatively single, the tariff is high, and the actual frequency of use is not high. Today, obstacles that restrict the entry of satellite communications into the consumer market still exist." Bai Song, an independent analyst in the communications industry, said, "Mobile phone manufacturers are pinning their hopes on the enhancement of satellite communications services. Although the competitiveness of its mobile phone business still has a long way to go, this is an important attempt for the mobile phone industry to shift from parameter competition to technological competition, which is of great significance to its own development and the innovation and upgrading of the entire industry chain."
Bai Song emphasized that the mobile phone direct-to-satellite communication business and its technology are still in the early stage of exploration. For some consumers, this function may not be used for a lifetime, but its rigid demand is obvious. In sparsely populated areas, in In areas where optical fibers and base stations are inconvenient to deploy, a mobile phone that can directly connect to satellites is an indispensable equipment for explorers and scientific researchers.
However, although there are still many technical challenges for satellite communication services, the upcoming functional evolution is still worth looking forward to from the perspective of the entire smartphone industry.
As T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert said, everyone who owns a mobile phone has experienced the anxiety of being in a dead zone. In a world where users are increasingly dependent on network connections and worry about losing connectivity Being able to send information in any situation is a very powerful feature.
The market space is expected to be further opened
In today's fierce competition for terminal equipment, in addition to cultivating camera functions and system configurations, it is particularly important for mobile phone manufacturers to open up new tracks and stand out from a crowd of mobile phones to win the favor of consumers.
With the continuous progress of aerospace technology and the information and communication industry, the satellite communication industry is developing rapidly, and the development route of mobile phone direct-to-satellite communication technology has become increasingly clear, and the landing application model is constantly innovating.
For example, satellite communication can basically cover all the activities that humans can reach, so it is often used in special fields such as geological exploration, ocean transportation, and forest patrol.
In the opinion of well-known popular science blogger Zhang Chi, the professional satellite phones used by fishermen currently engaged in marine fishing in the East China Sea are very fast and can even broadcast live.
As a result, mobile phones currently on the market that can only send location and distress text messages are not attractive to them.
However, the integration of the sky-earth network and the elimination of mobile phone signal coverage blind spots are the future development trends. The construction of two-way communication and broadband communication based on satellite systems is one of the important development directions of the future communication industry.
Xu Wenli, deputy director of the Electronic Information Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, introduced that in recent years, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has vigorously supported the research and development and industrialization of Beidou short messages and related technologies, continuously improving processes, improving performance, reducing costs, and gradually improving service infrastructure.
In the first half of 2022, there are 128 new mobile phones that can support Beidou-related services, with a total shipment of 132 million units, accounting for 98.5% of the shipments.
In 2020, for the first time, the National Development and Reform Commission clarified the scope of new infrastructure and included satellite Internet in the new infrastructure plan.
Recently, China Satcom Group Co., Ltd. stated that my country's first high-throughput satellite with a capacity of over 100 Gbps, Zhongxing 26, will be launched in early 2023. This satellite is my country's first system design and operation services. The overall performance is comparable. The launch of an international-level high-throughput satellite will fully open a new era of satellite Internet application services in my country.
In addition, satellite communication, as the most important potential technology in the 6G era, is an important supplement to the terrestrial communication network.
Facing the 6G era, operators, component manufacturers, equipment manufacturers and other upstream and downstream of the entire satellite communication industry chain are actively deploying.
Although mobile phone satellite communication can only play a role in blind communication in the short term, mainstream mobile phone manufacturers are accelerating their embrace of the satellite communication field, which means that the emerging track belonging to "smartphone + satellite communication" has been paved, but what kind of run out? The results are yet to be tested by time.
Further reading
Low-orbit satellite communication systems may spawn new application scenarios
In recent years, compared with the traditional medium and high orbit satellites, the low-orbit satellite communication system characterized by high bandwidth, low delay and other technical advantages has become an important development trend of the next-generation communication network.
The satellite working orbit height and system complexity of the low-orbit satellite communication system are different from those of the geostationary orbit satellite communication system, so there are differences in single-satellite technology, scale, and cost between the two, which ultimately lead to system construction and operation costs and system reliability. difference.
The technical characteristics of LEO satellite communication constellations also put forward different technical and performance requirements for ground terminal equipment.
In addition, the low-orbit satellite communication system can adopt technologies such as cellular communication, spot beam, multiple access, frequency reuse, etc., and the communication has the advantages of global coverage, low latency, etc., and can support real-time or near real-time online games, video calls, etc. Data transmission, after the integration with the ground communication backbone network, may give birth to new application scenarios.