Wen | move point technology
The author | Yellow Dust
Edited | Steven Lee
Recently, according to overseas media reports, Apple plans to bring satellite communication functions to its products, and satellite connection will enable iPhone to bypass operators and contact emergency contacts through satellite networks. The feature may be available as early as this year's iPhone 14, after which Apple may introduce the technology to the Apple Watch.
When it comes to satellite communication, it has to be said that the satellite Internet is an Internet broadband service model that uses satellites as a means of access. Internet service providers first send the Internet signal to the satellite in space, and then through the secondary transmission, the signal is returned to the satellite receiving antenna at the user's end, and the antenna is connected to the user's modem, and then the signal is further restored to the network data that the computer can use. The signal sent by the computer side, and then through the same path, to the Internet service provider, through repeated exchanges to achieve data interaction. In the future, it will have a wide range of application scenarios in the industrial Internet, Internet of Things, digital city and other aspects.
In April 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission for the first time clarified the scope of "new infrastructure", covering information infrastructure including 5G, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, industrial Internet, satellite Internet, etc., and the application margin can even activate trillions of market space in the future, and even some people threaten that it will replace the traditional terrestrial communication network, and major factories and even powerful countries have already begun to layout to seize the opportunity of this future infrastructure.
Predecessor
At present, the satellite Internet has become a new outlet for global technology companies, known as Amazon, SpaceX, OneWeb, Telesat and many other companies. According to huatai securities analysis, the global low-orbit satellite interconnection service market size will reach 110-200 billion US dollars in 2022. Commercial space companies with satellite manufacturing capabilities have thus become a hot spot for capital pursuit.
The most well-known in this field is Musk's space exploration company SpaceX, which was established in 2018, and as of February 2022, there are 2,091 Starlink satellites in orbit on earth, and a total of about 12,000 low-orbit satellites will be deployed by the end of 2027 to form a starlink network, which can provide network connectivity coverage for most parts of the earth.
SpaceX is followed by OneWeb, which is expected to launch 648 satellites to build the network, and the total number of satellites in orbit has reached nearly 300 so far, and it is expected to provide regional commercial services in the near future. For OneWeb, it is actually more inclined to the traditional centralized procurement networking. However, because the ground station is limited, the route path is longer, so the delay will be longer.
As early as 2018, Zhejiang Space-time Daoyu Technology Co., Ltd., which is strategically invested by Geely, was established, and its low-orbit satellite high-precision navigation system has completed the deployment of 305 high-precision space-time reference stations. At present, domestic enterprises such as Galaxy Aerospace and Nine Days Microstar have gradually emerged. Galaxy Aerospace will focus on the development of low-orbit small satellite broadband communication systems benchmarked by Starlink; while the nine-day MSI, which was founded earlier, has undergone more tortuous exploration, product positioning and technical routes have undergone many adjustments, and gradually opened up the situation from some application markets.
Great power competition
In addition to enterprises, some countries have also begun to pay attention to this area and increase investment. The European Union recently proposed a 6 billion euro investment in a "space-based secure communication system" to create its own low-Earth orbit satellite system. The EU's "Space-based Secure Communication System" will complement the existing Copernicus (Earth Observation System) and "Galileo" (Navigation Services System).
Although the number of satellites to be deployed has not yet been determined, it will support "edge computing, the Internet of Things, autonomous driving, e-health, smart work and education, sea-air communications connectivity, and smart agriculture," as well as broadband connectivity services and satellite access for the transport sector.
The EU estimates that the total cost of the planned satellite network will be 6 billion euros, of which the EU will invest 2.4 billion euros between 2022 and 2027, and the rest will come from member states, the European Space Agency and private institutional investors.
Back in 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a multifunctional satellite system project called "Sphere". The project, led by the Russian Space States Group, uses financial allocations plus market investment to create a satellite constellation of 640 multipurpose satellites spread across 17 orbital surfaces, including a second-generation "Messenger" low-orbit communication constellation of 288 satellites. In addition to serving military needs, the entire "sphere" constellation can also provide consumers with communications, navigation and other services.
In July 2021, the Government of Canada pledged to invest $1.2 billion in satellite telecommunications operator Telesat to support its "largest space program in Canadian history." Unlike SpaceX and OneWeb, the veteran satellite company, founded in 1969, focuses more on commercial customers than the average consumer. Although its launch plans have been pushed back and forth, Telesat's constellation program is still seen by the industry as a "strong enemy" of Starlink and OneWeb thanks to its decades of experience in satellite operations.
China's constellation plan has begun to brew between 2016 and 2018. Among them, aerospace science and technology, aerospace science and industry, China Electricity, China Telecom and other national teams have proposed their own low-orbit Internet constellation construction plans during this period, and have successively launched test stars.
It may be difficult to enter the daily experience in the short term
Traditional Internet often requires users to set up a fixed network in a specific area, such as lifting the floor to bury a few meters of cable, and then extending to each room. Once done, there will be a maze of wires and wiring under the floor or wall. This requirement also limits the coverage of the service. For remote areas with harsh terrain or poor transmission lines, it is almost impossible for fixed-line services to achieve connectivity. Satellite Internet, on the other hand, is generally not limited by terrain.
However, in the past, satellite Internet speeds were extremely slow. It is understood that the download speed previously provided was about 750 Kbps, and the development of technology and the upgrade of new satellites have made a qualitative leap in network speed performance. Today, some satellite Internet service providers can support 100 Mbps transmission speeds, which is about the same level of performance as most fixed-line and DSL network services.
And for a long time, due to the excessive number of transmission steps experienced, latency problems have plagued the viability of satellite Internet. Fiber optic Internet typically provides latency between 20-50 milliseconds, while satellite Internet can have latency of up to 600 milliseconds. High latency can affect a variety of application environments, such as games that emphasize ultra-high-speed response will be more awkward when using satellite Internet, while web browsing, checking emails, etc. are not sensitive to latency.
In addition, the cost of satellite Internet is much higher than that of conventional fiber optic Internet, resulting in tariffs being a big problem. Even though Starlink subsidizes the hardware needed to receive services, the device costs just $499, and the actual cost is at least four times that amount. In the U.S. market, satellite broadband costs $99 per month, which is about twice the price of fiber optic services. Although relying on scale is expected to continue to dilute the cost to near-fiber in the future, it is debatable whether it can be generally accepted.
summary
It is true that the construction of satellite Internet systems can effectively supplement the existing terrestrial communication network, but due to the constraints of funds, technology, frequency band resources and other aspects, most of the constellations are currently in the planning stage, according to the aerospace market research consulting company Northern Sky Research (NSR) forecast in 2020, only about 18% of the constellations can reach the launch stage.
At present, China's commercial space companies engaged in rocket launch and satellite manufacturing, although they have made breakthroughs in some technologies, but from the perspective of product maturity and production capacity, there is still a certain gap with SpaceX, if you can't do low-cost, large-scale small satellite networking like Starlink, you can't dilute the tariff, then you will face the same embarrassing situation as today's 5G.
The lessons of the Iridium plan are still in sight, and the construction period of the low-orbit communication constellation is long and the investment is huge. If the construction and operating costs of the space Internet cannot be close to the ground network, the commercial value of satellite constellations will be greatly reduced. At the same time, the high cost of user use will also make it difficult for products to have international competitiveness.
Coupled with the weak carrying capacity of satellite Internet in providing services to dense users in large cities, the promotion of the current industrial Internet, smart city and other scenarios is not as good as ground networks such as optical fiber and 5G, so how to replace traditional communication networks?
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