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Recently, Huawei Mate 50 and Apple iPhone 14 have been launched one after another, and the smartphone loading satellite communication function has become a hot topic in the industry.
mobile phones can send messages to satellites anytime, anywhere, which means that when humans are lost in outdoors where there are few people and no signals, they can also ask for help through their mobile phones at any time. Some users joked that when mobile phones that support satellite functions become popular, movies like "Falling" that tell the story of extreme survival will reach a reunion ten minutes after the broadcast.
Judging from the mobile phones currently released, their satellite communication functions still have many restrictions. It is not difficult to truly "break the sky".
Source: CCTV News
The long-rumored satellite communication function
In fact, satellite communication is not a new technology, and it can even be said to be quite mature and widely used. However, it is still relatively new to integrate this technology into commercial mobile phones.
At present, our mobile wireless network system needs to rely on wired networks to achieve it, that is, the addition of optical fiber, and traditional terrestrial communication technology can have huge transmission capabilities. However, its disadvantages are also obvious, that is, the laying difficulty is too high and the coverage is relatively low. For example, the Gobi Desert, the ocean and other areas with sparsely populated and harsh natural environments cannot achieve full coverage of signals, which explains why mobile phones have no signals when there are deep mountains and old forests.
, satellite communication is used to fly in low-Earth orbit as a relay station. It basically does not rely on wired communication facilities throughout the process, and does not require a lot of manpower and material resources to lay a huge fiber network underground. If the number of satellites reaches a certain level, it will theoretically have the ability to connect to any location in the world. Even if the user is in an unmanned land, deep mountains and forests, and vast oceans, he can communicate through satellites flying overhead, so that the mobile phone will not become a "brick".
Compared with cellular network communication, satellite communication first breaks the constraints of distance. According to industry insiders, in the satellite beam coverage area, the communication distance is up to 13,000 kilometers; secondly, between the two points of communication, breaks the limitations of the communication geographical environment, and is not even affected by any natural disaster and man-made events between the two points of communication; secondly, the communication quality is high, the system reliability is high, and it can even be used for the support system during the submarine cable repair period, etc.
In addition, an industry consensus view is that in recent years, natural disasters and geopolitical conflicts have become increasingly frequent, which may make emergency SMS/voice services through satellite communications a must-have feature for smartphones.
Of course, satellite communication also has disadvantages, such as it is difficult to realize satellite communication in high latitude areas, and the transmission delay is high, the sun transit phenomenon and star eclipse phenomenon in space will interrupt and affect satellite communication and the launch cost and service life cost of the satellite itself.
The more typical and well-known service providers include Iridium system , global star system, maritime satellite, OneWeb, Musk's StraLink system, etc.
Huawei VSApple: What are the differences in satellite communication methods
On September 6, Huawei announced that the Mate50 series will become the world's first smartphone to support Beidou satellite messages. On September 8, Apple's iPhone 14 series officially announced that it supports satellite communications functions.
From the perspective of functional form, Huawei Mate50 series adopts text input form. Each message can only be sent within 19 words, and the message can only be sent but not received; the iPhone 14 series does not support manual text input, and requires the rescue agency to ask for help by answering multiple-choice questions, but can receive messages from satellites.
On the other hand, although the two mobile phones also have satellite communication functions, the satellite constellations they rely on are not the same. Lai Haiguang, CTO of
Control and Dimensional Communications, pointed out that Huawei Mate50 uses the Beidou constellation, while iPhone14 uses the Globalstar satellite constellation.The difference between the two is that the Beidou constellation is a constellation system that is mixed with medium orbit and synchronous orbit, with a total of 55 satellites. The main function is navigation and has the ability to transmit short messages; the Globalstar satellite constellation is a low-orbit constellation, with a total of 40 satellites, which are specially used for voice and low-speed data transmission.
Due to the different satellite constellations, the two mobile phones work differently in the design of communication protocol . Penghu Wuyu CTO Xu Jiakang said that Huawei Beidou needs to solve the problems caused by the extremely long transmission distance of nearly 40,000 kilometers of high-orbit satellites, while Apple Globalstar needs to solve the problems of poor signals caused by Doppler shift and switching caused by high-speed movement of low-orbit satellites.
In terms of coverage, Huawei Mate50's main coverage area is the mainland China, while the SOS emergency contact function of iPhone14 is currently only open to the United States and Canada. Xu Jiakang said that since Beidou and Globalstar use the same frequency, unless there is further international cooperation, the iPhone 14 cannot use satellite emergency communication services in China, and Huawei Mate 50 cannot use this service in North America.
A patented technology previously published by Huawei called "Methods and Devices of Satellite Communications" shows that the company has mastered satellite communication technology that reduces the energy consumption and communication complexity of terminal equipment while improving communication performance. Before this, Huawei has accumulated dozens of satellite communication-related technical patents to meet satellite communication needs and improve the user experience of Huawei terminal devices.
In addition, Google also recently announced that the next generation of Android systems will also support mobile phone satellite communication functions, and the Android 14 developer preview version is expected to be launched in March 2023. This means that in the future, all Android phones equipped with Android 14 system are expected to support this technology.
Why did you choose to introduce satellite communication technology at this time
Mobile companies have chosen to introduce satellite communication technology at this time, which is related to the development of satellite communication system .
In recent years, with the rapid development of modern mobile communications, electronic components and satellite engineering technologies, satellite communication systems have largely solved problems such as user access, call quality, data transmission and construction costs. Compared with the past, the current mobile phone configuration is more advanced; the cost of satellite development is getting lower and lower; the emergence of multiple satellite launch technology and the launch vehicle recycling technology has not only shortened the satellite deployment cycle, but also reduced the deployment cost. These advances provide conditions and opportunities for mobile phones to realize satellite communications.
At 21:18 Beijing time on September 13, my country used the Long March 7 launch vehicle at the Wenchang Space Launch Site and successfully launched the "Zhongxing 1E" satellite . The satellite successfully entered the predetermined orbit and the launch mission was a complete success. This satellite is mainly used to provide users with high-quality voice, data, radio and television transmission services. Source: Xinhua News Agency
According to USC data, as of January 1 this year, about 4,852 in-orbit satellites orbited above the earth, of which my country has 499 in-orbit satellites, ranking second in the world. In just 65 years, while the number of satellites has increased by a factor of magnitude, humans are also constantly expanding the boundaries of satellites. From the initial weather forecast, environmental monitoring to today's data communication, navigation and positioning, the functions of satellites are becoming more and more powerful.
With the advent of the 5G era, new technologies represented by artificial intelligence and autonomous driving have very high requirements for network bandwidth and latency. In the 5G era, the coverage of base stations has been shortened to less than 500 meters. Once the 6G era is reached, the coverage of base stations will be further reduced. In this context, it is obviously far from enough to build ground base stations alone, and satellites have become a more powerful terminal than ground base stations.
my country's communication satellite launch plan is also steadily moving forward. In May last year, the constellation plan code-named "GW" was exposed, and the plan pointed out that China will launch 13,000 low-orbit communication satellites within seven years. The subsequent promulgation of the "Overall Vision and Potential Key Technologies of 6G" pointed out that 6G will achieve global seamless coverage of the integration of space and earth, and the integrated satellite-earth integration networking technology will also become one of the most important potential technologies of 6G networks.
Can smartphones really realize satellite communication this year
In fact, last year's iPhone 13 series supports satellite connection function in hardware, but Apple failed to enable it based on business model and other reasons. Earlier, when Musk SpaceX and T-Mobile announced their cooperation to provide direct mobile phone connection services for the second generation Starlink , it was also mentioned that this service uses the PCS frequency band, and many mobile phones on the market support it.
satellite communications still have many problems. is the cost issue first and foremost , the cost of satellite communications is relatively high. If you want to buy a "top-equipped" satellite mobile phone that supports satellite communications and can be used normally, the price is often more than 10,000 yuan, and the annual rental fee after purchase is as high as 1,000 yuan, so the charging issue has become the focus of consumers' attention.
At present, Huawei Mate50 series Beidou satellite message function is not charged for the time being. During the experience period, 30 free quotas are provided per month. If the quotas exceed the quotas, the free quotas will be charged. The free quotas will be automatically refreshed next month. Apple said that the iPhone 14 will be free for this feature in the first two years, and the subsequent charging prices will be announced one after another.
is followed by security issue . Information security issues are undoubtedly the weakness of smartphone satellite communication. Some industry insiders pointed out that from the past history, in 2006, the hackers of Indonesian used homemade terminals to hack into commercial satellites; in 2007, a satellite encoding algorithm in the European Galileo navigation system was broken; in 2009, my country's Beidou civilian encoding was also cracked. The security problems brought by satellite communications are more complex than traditional Internet, and how to solve information security problems is undoubtedly a big test.
Some experts said that in the future, Beidou satellite communication bandwidth will be given priority to the use of traditional urgently needed scenarios such as fishery, forest rescue, and military, and may not be allocated to such a large group of smartphone users in China.
However, some industry insiders believe that if the open bandwidth of Beidou satellite communications is increased and the threshold is lowered, "it may also lead to more space and application possibilities."
Communications industry observer 六后 said in an interview with a reporter from China News Service that satellite communication technology is relatively mature, but it is still difficult to use on ordinary commercial mobile phones. It is precisely because it is more difficult and useful, so the combination of the two is meaningful. However, Xiang Ligang also reminded that there are still many technical problems that need to be solved in combination of the two, "not as mature as we imagined." "For example, the satellite communication system itself is relatively complex. Our common satellite phone, , has a very long antenna. This antenna will also be improved and placed in the mobile phone, which will inevitably occupy the position of other components and generate greater energy consumption. How to balance is a test."
Although, it seems that it is still far from realizing satellite communication in the true sense of smartphones, the industry believes that the two major "wind-oriented" mobile phone companies were exposed at the same time and will support the "satellite communication function" which can still reflect the future development expectations of smartphones. I believe that with the advancement of technology, the ideal smart satellite phone will not stop at the ideal.
(China Xiaokang Network Comprehensive Xinhuanet , China News Network, CCTV News, Science and Technology Daily, etc.)
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Source: China Xiaokang Network
Author: Fenghua
Review: Gong Zimo
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