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"The sea of stars, crisscrossing each other, shaking the starlight, returning to yourself." The text message that spread throughout Xinghai was the relationship between the "science student" and Huawei.
After the Mate50 series released in September became the world's first smartphone to support Beidou satellite, Huawei brought another big benefit on the last day of October: Huawei Mate Xs 2 is about to upgrade its satellite function and will be officially launched on November 5. In public testing, this will be Huawei's second mobile phone with Beidou satellite communication function after the Mate50 series. This is very important for Huafen, this breakthrough, sky-piercing technology, with the support of certain hardware thresholds and Beidou operator services, can be enjoyed through software OTA updates.
In September, Apple and Huawei released new flagships and launched satellite services at almost the same time. Unlike Apple, which can only use satellite SOS for help, imagine this scenario: you have climbed a mountain for many days, and there are snowy mountains in front of you, but you can't do it. Unable to receive signals due to extreme environments. So when you connected to the satellite, you sent "I'm at the top of the mountain, everything is fine" to the many family members who cared about you, and you thoughtfully confirmed the accurate coordinate information. Saying "safe" adds warmth to Huawei's technology.
This unique romance relies on Beidou satellite's unique SMS communication technology - it shows that Chinese smartphones represented by Huawei have entered the "star-chasing era". The world's first mass-market satellite mobile phone Huawei Mate 50 series was also successfully selected as one of the top ten demagoguery moments in 2022 and appeared on CCTV video.
"Unique in the world" SMS technology
To understand short message communication technology, we cannot avoid the development process of Beidou.
After more than 20 years of development, the Beidou navigation system independently built and operated by the mainland has become one of the four major satellite navigation systems in the world, making outstanding contributions to transportation, agriculture, forestry and fishery and other fields. Hydrological monitoring. , weather forecasting, etc.
The system went through two iterations. Huawei's "connected satellite" refers to the global satellite navigation system Beidou-3, which will be launched after July 31, 2020, and can already provide high-quality navigation and positioning services to users around the world. In the world.
First of all, we must know that the Beidou-3 system consists of 24 medium-Earth orbit satellites, 3 geostationary orbit satellites and 3 inclined geosynchronous orbit satellites. SMS technology was first applied to Beidou-1, and has always used "active positioning", which has poor concealment, time-consuming solution and relatively low positioning accuracy. After upgrading to Beidou-3, on the basis of compatibility with the "active positioning" system, the "active positioning" system and the "passive positioning" + short message communication system will be widely adopted to greatly improve service capabilities and limit short messages. The number of published words increased from 120 words in Beidou II to 1,000 words in Beidou 3.
At this point in the development of technology, whether Huawei can break through the sky still lacks a boost - the mobile phone Beidou SMS RF baseband integrated chip has been successfully developed and reached the mass production stage this summer. This means that the chip will soon be integrated into smart terminals and quickly introduced to the masses.
Texting is like a text message from outer space. They connect directly to satellites without relying on the operator's terrestrial network. They inherit many of the advantages of satellites, such as all-weather, wide coverage, high reliability, etc. Compared to the high price of satellite phones, the SMS operation of smartphones has become more flexible and rich. Fishermen who go to sea can lock their location and make distress calls via SMS; Desert, forest, ice fields and other special geomorphological survey workers can rely on text messages to keep in touch with the outside world at any time, which greatly improves security.
If the technology does reach millions of homes, it will be a bottom-up communication technology - no matter where you are, as long as you point satellites in open areas, you can transmit information. Although Huawei's current satellite communication function only supports one-way SMS sending and cannot exceed 50 Chinese characters, it opens the door for consumers to search for stars.
Has the era of "breaking the sky" arrived?
Why did the two giants enter the field of satellite communication services in September this year? While still in its early stages and with its limitations, it is already sending a clear signal that smartphones with direct satellite connectivity are getting closer to mainstream consumers.
The relatively unfamiliar word "satellite" was thrust into public view after two press conferences. In fact, in addition to Apple, Huawei, Samsung, Xiaomi, vivo, Meizu and other mobile phone manufacturers have also begun to prepare for satellite communication technology. For example, in March this year, Xiaomi received a new patent for "satellite-based communication methods, devices and data carriers"; A small number of ordinary vivo mobile phones support Beidou navigation and have made great progress in "star chasing"; Not long ago, Starmachine Times announced that it will launch the world's first consumer mobile phone that can be directly connected to low-orbit satellites, realizing the integration of space and earth and unlimited connection.
The overseas "star chasing" trend is also in full swing. T-Mobile and SpaceX's "Starlink" Internet service have reached a mobile phone access agreement; British satellite telecommunications network company Oneweb has partnered with AT&T, Verizon has partnered with Amazon and Nokia is working with AST SpaceMobile, which wants to connect satellites directly to phones. It can be said that the direct connection of smartphones to satellites is the only advancement after the continuous development of technology in the communication industry.
In part, a large part of the reason why the two giants are able to compete like this fall is that they are waiting — partners need to be in place at every step. Both low and high orbits have their own characteristics. The former has obvious advantages such as broadband connection and low transmission delay, while the latter has high design capacity, large single satellite coverage, small number of satellites required, and low comprehensive cost. When the mainland planned to build the Beidou navigation system, it mentioned the creation of a high-orbit satellite Internet. After years of development, it has been able to achieve mature applications in aviation, navigation, emergency response, natural resources and other fields.
In June 2020, the 55th Beidou navigation satellite carried by the Long March 3B rocket was successfully launched, and the entire Beidou system was globally networked. In April last year, the National Development and Reform Commission for the first time clarified the scope of "new infrastructure", which includes satellite internet. In April this year, the state-owned enterprise Huaxing Network, with a registered capital of 10 billion yuan, landed in Xiong'an New Area, anchoring the world's first-class satellite Internet company, and was known as the "national team" and "satellite Internet". fifth largest satellite Internet operator; This summer, Beidou SMS business successfully developed and mass-produced mobile phone RF baseband integrated chips, and added 128 Beidou mobile phones to the network in the first half of the year... Behind this series of activities, China is accelerating the development of satellite communications and satellite Internet, and has also given many domestic mobile phone manufacturers the courage to enter the "sea of stars".
"Tech Man" Huawei Romance "Star-Chasing Story"
Huawei launches the world's first Beidou satellite. In just sixteen words, it tells the story of 15 months of hard work of the team.
The principle of "sending text messages from space" actually uses satellites as relay devices. Users use equipment terminals to connect satellites as relay devices to communication equipment hundreds or thousands of kilometers away to complete information transmission. The GEO satellite of the Beidou-3 system, which realizes the relay function, operates in an orbit at an altitude of about 36,000 kilometers.
It is true that the limitations of high-orbit satellites make it very difficult for Huawei to achieve "space SMS". On the one hand, flying higher means that the farther away from the transmission target, the greater the path loss compared to the closer-away low-orbit satellite; On the other hand, the transmit power of the phone is too low to establish a valid connection. If you refer to traditional satellite phones, the transmission power is improved, but the complex structure of the built-in antenna makes the phone too large to fit in a pocket. In order to "put satellite information in your pocket" anytime, anywhere without changing the original size and space of smartphones, Huawei must find a new way to overcome the problem of high information transmission loss between mobile phone terminals and satellite communications.
Working group research has shown that the antenna gain of transceivers is lower than that of dedicated devices due to the limitations of space inside mobile phones. If you want to place a satellite dish inside, you need to achieve higher antenna gain with a more precise and professional design.
In addition, in order for the mobile phone to connect directly to the satellite, another system must be created to communicate with the satellite, in addition to the original connection to the terrestrial network.
Finally, Huawei improved the performance and efficiency of satellite communications and reduced signal loss by creating new communication protocols and high-performance hardware designs between mobile terminals and satellites. In order to ensure the accuracy and reliability of satellite communication services, Huawei has reduced the process of satellite signal transmission. To eliminate noise and interference, Huawei uses a high-amplification algorithm to increase signal decoding speed, focus signals, reduce divergence, and directly reach satellites. Through the UX design of the patented satellite navigation guide, it provides users with a visual operation mode, which is more convenient for users. Let the mobile terminal automatically find the satellite location, help users establish a more stable connection, and then improve the performance of sending and receiving information.
In this way, Huawei engineers have created a complete closed-loop test and verification to verify the capabilities of Beidou satellite communication functions in various extreme environments and usage scenarios, using terminal devices to send signals to analog satellites through star search commands. The whole communication process of receiving and creating signals "Beidou satellite signal transmission equipment ground test - Beidou satellite signal receiving equipment - ground communication system information processing" also constitutes the world's first Beidou-3 end-to-end satellite - ground. Integrated communication control system.
Since the prototype successfully sent the first Beidou short message, a new challenge came - in order to ensure that the mobile phone terminal can receive satellite messages in any region, environment and extreme climate, the test team has once again embarked on a long journey. It covers 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, from the Yulin Desert in the north, the Hainan Islands in the south, the coast of the East China Sea in the east, and the Qiangtang Grassland in the west. It lasted 18 months. External test scenarios include the Gobi Desert and the high mountains of the motherland. Different landscapes such as jungles, rivers, seas and lakes.
Needless to say, the difficulties on the road. In Nyima County, Tibet, in May, it still snows every morning. They have tested the Beidou satellite's messaging capabilities while breathing white air. In the uninhabited land of Cocoxili, they have to intermittently rely on oxygen to cope with altitude sickness. , whether you can continue to complete the test; In the Baliping Fishing Valley in the Qinling Mountains at an altitude of more than 3,000 meters, they lavishly washed their faces with a bottle of mineral water for 8 yuan and continued to work hard... Huawei people have made great contributions to the realization of the world's first Beidou satellite.
It was this group of engineers who designed a complete set of test and control systems from scratch, starting from the communication protocol, looking up at the satellite platform, and finally realizing the smooth promotion of the Beidou system to mass consumers. First-class intelligent terminal, to achieve "up" "soaring to the sky, straight to the ground". This is a small step for Huawei, but a big step for the industry. It marks the entry of mass smartphones into the "interstellar era" and will become a colorful chapter in the history of world communications. (This article was first published on Titanium Media App)
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