The heavy rain in Henan affects everyone's heart.

Yesterday, a notification text message from China Mobile to temporarily resume communication instantly refreshed the screen:

I was moved by everyone's concern, and also felt the strength of the country's scientific and technological strength.

Moved, emotionally remembered. Let's talk from a technical point of view, this emergency communication operation is very good!

Let’s take a look at the original text of the official news:

In the wireless communication (4G, 5G) we use every day, its base stations rely on optical cables to transmit data to the core network.

The heavy rain caused failures such as interruption of optical cables and power outages of large-scale base stations, forming a "communication interruption area".

At this time, only emergency communication methods can be used. Common emergency communication methods include:

• Satellite communication: Satellite communication is limited by handheld terminal equipment, and ordinary people generally do not have satellite communication terminal equipment. Satellite communication terminals are commonly equipped on ships.

maritime satellite phone

• Emergency communication vehicle: It is the most common emergency communication equipment, like a mobile base station, which is mainly used to solve the communication capacity problem of large-scale activities. The car will definitely not be able to get through this rainstorm.

emergency communication vehicle

• UAV emergency communication: The protagonist of today's topic has gradually developed in recent years, mainly due to the great development of UAV technology.

Wing Loong UAV

From the official notification, the principle of this communication has been basically described:

• The Wing Loong UAV is equipped with 4G/5G base station equipment.

• The backhaul of the wireless base station equipment on the aircraft adopts the satellite link.

• Satellite to ground station, transmission to mobile 4/5G core network.

This emergency communication plan has been drilled in October last year. This time it is considered a successful actual combat:

Domestic UAV emergency communication is mainly developed and integrated by China Mobile. It is in charge of China Mobile Chengdu Research Institute.

Last year, Leshan City suffered a "once in a century" flood disaster. China Mobile (Chengdu) Industry Research Institute used 5G network-connected drones to play a great role in emergency rescue, post-disaster reconstruction, and helping restore normal production and living order. effect.

You can look at the picture above carefully, the aircraft used at that time dragged a "tail". Using a "tethered drone"

And this time to help Henan, a more advanced "fixed-wing UAV" was used.

These are different from the drones that everyone uses to take pictures and videos every day.

At present, the comparison of several UAV platforms is shown in the following figure:

Tethered UAVs use tethered cables to supply power to UAVs and base station equipment for a long time, increasing the length of stay in the air, but also losing flight flexibility.

How tethered drones work

This time, it was difficult for tethered drones to enter and use the super flood in Henan. They sent a big killer, the pterosaur fixed-wing drone.

• Thousands of miles long run

• Not limited by special disaster environment (no fear of power failure and circuit break)

• Long-term (5 hours) communication guarantee

The appearance of drone + communication is heartwarming and shocking.

Follow-up drone + 5G, there are many application scenarios: inspection, disaster relief, performances, plant protection and so on. I believe it will continue to attract everyone's attention.

If you are interested in the topic of UAV + communication, you can pay more attention to China Mobile Chengdu Research Institute.

On July 2, 2021, China Mobile Cheng R&D just issued a bid for "China Mobile (Chengdu) Information and Communication Technology Co., Ltd. 2021-2022 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, UAV Warehouses and Supporting Equipment Demand Projects First Batch_Comparison Announcement" , to purchase a large number of drones:

Technology changes and helps life. This time, I want to give a like to China Mobile and the Chengdu Research Institute of China Mobile!