In the intensified Sino US science and technology war in the past two years, 5g has attracted much attention as the focus of the struggle. Due to the lack of 5g communication system integration manufacturers in the United States, under the backward situation, the United States has the voice of jumping 5g and directly stepping into 6G. Its essence is to give full play to the advantages of the United States in the field of satellite communication and commercial aerospace and achieve the purpose of dimensionality reduction in scientific and technological warfare.

       Recently, the United States SpaceX has 60 LEO satellites in one arrow. In the future, it will build a circle of friends with 12000 and 30000 satellite giant constellations. The friends in the satellite circle exclaimed that we must do something. Huawei, the leader of 5g, also released some progress in 6G research and claimed to join the field of satellite communication in order to continue to take the lead in the 6G era. As soon as this news came out, it immediately caused an uproar in the satellite circle. Many people in the circle believe that Huawei's entry into the niche field of satellite will make everyone have no way to live. Is this really the case? In this regard, the author has some personal views to share with you.

       Before discussing this issue, we might as well make some simple analysis on China's satellite communication industry.

       China's satellite communication industry entered China with the demand for satellite TV broadcasting during Nixon's visit to China, and then experienced several ups and downs.

       The first wave of development was the construction of the national satellite backbone network. The national backbone network was rapidly constructed by using satellites. At that time, almost every province had satellite bureaus. The Design Institute of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications where the author was located had two satellite design rooms (at that time, there was only one wireless design room). The national design masters in the Institute were also engaged in satellite communication, With the development of eight vertical and eight horizontal optical cable network construction, satellite communication as trunk transmission has declined rapidly;

       The second wave is after the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, satellite application communication has set off a new upsurge, especially the popularity of Ku based VSAT equipment. At most, there are more than 60 VSAT licenses in China, and various vehicle, ship and portable solutions emerge one after another. However, with the rapid development of broadband transmission and 3G and 4G networks, The high cost of satellite broadband restricts the expansion of satellite commercial market;

       The third wave is that with the rapid development of the ground mobile Internet and the emergence of a large number of aircraft and marine broadband access requirements, the rapid maturity of high-throughput satellite technology has been promoted, and the vision of building a global broadband satellite network has become a realistic goal, making the LEO constellation of low and medium orbit satellites develop in full swing. Now, the Sino US trade war and science and technology war, especially the competition for 5g and 6G, have added fire to the rapid development of satellite communication.

       However, it is undeniable that there is still a huge gap between China and Europe and the United States in satellite communication at this stage, and it will encounter a severe test in the global satellite communication competition in the future.

       The reason why the United States takes satellite network as the priority against China's 5g leadership lies in its advantage over China in this field.

       With the rapid development of China's wired broadband and mobile communication networks, broadband networks have rapidly expanded to all corners of the motherland, but this also makes China's satellite communication market increasingly small, basically focusing on emergency, disaster relief, national defense and remote areas, and it is difficult to enter the mass communication market, This is significantly different from the positioning of the U.S. home broadband market using satellites. Despite the demand for one belt, one road and another, the high and medium earth orbit constellation has been developing rapidly.

       In the past, China's satellite manufacturing basically relied on the national aerospace system, while commercial aerospace has just sprung up in recent years. There is still a very obvious gap compared with the United States in terms of satellite capacity, satellite manufacturing, satellite cost, rocket launch and rocket reuse. China's new generation Ka high-throughput satellite commercial platform has only reached the order of more than 100g, The new generation Ka high throughput satellite of the United States has been known as 1t; China's low and medium orbit constellation is still in the stage of experimental satellite verification. Leo of the United States has begun to build the constellation. After years of development, American commercial aerospace has begun commercial applications in the fields of rocket reuse and satellite assembly line manufacturing, while China's commercial aerospace has just started in recent years, The author believes that there is at least a gap of more than 10 years between us and the United States in these aspects.

       The development of satellite communication is inseparable from the maturity of satellite terminals. In the past, satellite terminals were basically the world of foreign enterprises. With the rise of domestic satellite terminal system integration manufacturers in recent years, shipborne satellite terminals and vehicle mounted satellite terminals basically beat foreign products out of China, but airborne satellite terminals and domestic solutions are still breaking through the threshold of airworthiness certification, China's satellite terminal system integration has made great progress, and the gap with the United States is gradually narrowing.

       Satellite communication is relatively small. Therefore, satellite communication does not follow the international standardization development path like mobile communication. The baseband communication part of satellite communication is modman, and manufacturers cannot communicate with each other. The modman terminal of manufacturer a can only access the satellite gateway station, and the modman pool of manufacturer A. interoperability is not supported between different manufacturers. At present, in the field of commercial satellite communication, Idirect, Hughes, viasat, Gilat Comtec and NEWTEC are all foreign manufacturers, and most of them are American manufacturers. Domestic manufacturers have only some special industry applications, and there are domestic manufacturers such as China Electronics, China Electronics Technology, aerospace technology and so on. The author believes that this is the field that China should break through most.

       As a leading enterprise in the Sino US science and technology war, Huawei has stood firm under the sanctions and pressure of the United States, won unanimous praise at home and abroad, and demonstrated its strong strength.

       So, will Huawei enter the satellite communication industry? 

The author believes that the answer is yes, because the future 6G network must solve the integration of heaven and earth and realize the vision of ubiquitous network. The integration of satellite communication and land communication is the general trend. As a 5g leading enterprise, Huawei must layout the satellite communication industry if it wants to continue to lead in 6G technology.

       So, what can Huawei bring to the satellite communication industry?

       As a big Mac technology giant with an income of US $100 billion, although it will have a strong impact on the current situation of the industry, it is impossible for Huawei to do everything when it enters the satellite communication industry. The author believes that Huawei's entry into the satellite communication industry plays a great role in satellite baseband communication, which is the field in which Huawei is very good at. Therefore, colleagues in the satellite circle need not worry too much, but should be thankful. After all, the participation of communication giants such as Huawei and ZTE will greatly improve the satellite baseband communication capability, so as to achieve the effect of surpassing the blue, which is of great significance to the development of China's high-throughput satellites and LEO constellation in low and medium orbit, It is entirely possible to overtake on this corner.

The author firmly believes that with the development of human civilization, human activities will move from plane to three-dimensional in the future to solve the ubiquitous network coverage, and the best choice must be satellite technology. With the development of 5g technology, the future 6G network will certainly have an important place, even a decisive position, for satellite communication. Therefore, pregnant with huge business opportunities, the omnipresent network of heaven and earth integration needs more high-tech enterprises to join, especially more Chinese leading high-tech enterprises. Huawei's entry into the satellite communication industry will further accelerate the development of China's satellite communication, and it is entirely possible to overtake in corners in some subdivided fields.

       This article comes fromXie Ying, vice president of Shenzhen donica electronics and owner of Eagle talk forum,Support the protection of intellectual property rights. Please indicate the original source and author for reprint. If there is infringement, please contact us to delete