In September 2022, Huawei and Apple released Huawei Mate 50 series and iPhone 14 series smartphones, and the satellite communication function carried by both of them has become a hot topic of concern in the field of technology. A satellite communication system refers to multiple satellites constituting a system that can carry out real-time information processing, among which low-orbit satellites can be used for cell phone communication.
Low orbit satellite orbit height is concentrated in 1000-1500km, low orbit height makes the ground and satellite transmission delay short, the path loss is small, suitable as efficient communication, and interconnection tools, but also due to the low height, a single low orbit satellite coverage area is small, need a large number of satellites to form a constellation system to achieve global coverage.
Civilian satellite communication is taking shape
According to Lai Haiguang, CTO of Covicom, Huawei Mate5 uses the Beidou constellation, while iPhone 14 uses the Globalstar satellite constellation. The difference between the two is that Compass Constellation is a mixed constellation system of medium and synchronous orbits, whose main function is navigation and short message transmission capability, while Globalstar’s satellite constellation is a low-orbit constellation dedicated to voice and low-speed data transmission.
From the past to the present, satellite communication has been a means of emergency communication in special scenarios. Previously, satellite communications required the use of expensive satellite phones, but now they have been replaced by smartphones with more features, without the price being raised by the addition of this feature. It may seem like an “itchy upgrade”.
But in the future, the ability of satellite communication is much more than just sending emergency information so simple, in addition to text messages, and phone calls, satellite communications can also achieve the function of Internet access, which is likely to develop into a very important means of communication.
Heaven and Earth complement each other
The advantage of traditional communication through base stations mainly lies in the speed, through the fiber optic cable connection, theoretically up to 20Gbps high-speed communication. However, the problem lies in the high construction cost and the fact that each 5G base station can only cover a relatively small area. Many third-world countries cannot afford the infrastructure costs, and according to the Global Development Report released by the China International Development Knowledge Center, about 38% of the world’s population (i.e. 2.9 billion people) will still not be connected to the Internet by the end of 2021.
Satellite communication mainly consists of near-orbit communication satellites for wireless signal transmission, and the current maximum speed is about 0.3Gbps, which has a large gap with 5G in speed. But the advantage is that the ground does not need base stations, fiber optic cables and other infrastructure, and can cover a much wider area.
This means that base station communications and satellite communications, respectively, cover speed and breadth, just to form a complementary.
Seize the layout, the national team’s direct entry
At present, the main factor that restricts the development of satellite communications is the unit cost of satellite launch, the rocket propulsion ratio and whether it is recoverable are among the most important determining factors. Europe’s Ariane 5 (Ariane-5) launch vehicle costs about $10,313 per kilogram of launch, Russia’s main launch vehicle costs $7,246 per kilogram of launch, and China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation’s Fast Boat 11 launch vehicle costs about $5,000 per kilogram of launch. The U.S. Falcon 9 rocket, on the other hand, currently costs $2,700 to launch thanks to its recoverable design.
Tesla founder Musk’s Starlink currently plans to launch a total of 42,000 satellites for the Starlink system, with more than 1,400 satellites launched as of Jan. 1, 2022, compared to China’s total of 499 satellites in orbit.
Announcement of SASAC on the formation of China Satellite Network Group Co.
In September 2020, the Chinese company codenamed “GW” submitted its spectrum allocation dossier to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). On April 29, 2021, China Satellite Network Group Co., Ltd. was officially inaugurated in Xiong’an, at which point it was confirmed that “GW” was the code name for “State Network”.
It should be noted that, due to the limited capacity of satellites in near-Earth orbit, the scientific community is generally considered to be about 60,000. And the International Telecommunication Union ITU for satellite orbit allocation to implement the “first-come-first-served” system, so if China and the United States are on schedule to complete the satellite launch, the vast majority of the Earth’s near-Earth orbit will be occupied by two countries.
On January 19, China’s Galaxy Space self-research six low-orbit broadband communications satellites from the independent construction of the satellite R & D production line, the satellite factory to verify the domestic satellite production line of small-scale batch production capacity and low-cost development mode, to achieve China’s first low-cost satellite batch development and production.
The future of the sky, more than communication
On June 6, 2021, the China Academy of Information and Communication Technology released the “6G Overall Vision and Potential Key Technologies”, which pointed out that 6G will achieve seamless global coverage with integrated air-space-sky integration, and that star-ground integrated converged networking technology will become one of the most important potential technologies for 6G networks. Base station communication and satellite communication will together form the future communication network of China.
Satellite communication will also play a role in-vehicle networking. As the level of autonomous driving continues to rise, the high-precision positioning provided by low-orbit satellites can assist the image recognition system to clearly identify references such as guardrails, trees, elevations, and road edges, improving the vehicle’s environmental perception capability and thus enhancing the car’s autonomous driving capability.
As the satellite communication industry develops, it will also drive the surrounding aerospace technology. For example, the recoverable rocket technology used to launch communication satellites is widely favored. By reducing the cost of space transportation, future industries such as high-precision metal processing and biopharmaceuticals will be able to produce in a gravity-free environment at a lower cost. The human being can lower the cost of space for production operations, perhaps will promote the fourth industrial revolution.
