There are two main ways to access the Internet in the air, one is satellite communication, and the other is ATG ground-air broadband communication. The two complement each other to form the future of smart aviation.
Facing the last “virgin land”, all parties in the industry chain have taken active actions in recent years. From communication equipment manufacturers, network operators to aviation service providers, they have all rushed to the new track of aviation Internet.
01 Civil Aviation will “hand in hand” 5G
Recently, Yunnan Xiangpeng Airlines and Xinjiang Urumqi Airlines have each completed the upgrade of the local area network, and their first “digital cabin” flights that can provide in-flight WiFi services have been flown successively, allowing passengers to sleep, listen to music, There are more entertainment options besides reading magazines. However, to make the dream of in-flight office work into reality, the vigorous promotion of 5G ATG is still needed.
The Civil Aviation Administration recently released a roadmap proposing to vigorously promote the application of a new generation of aviation broadband communications and build a civil aviation 5G network that combines public and private use. “This is the first time that the Civil Aviation Administration has clearly proposed a systematic implementation path for the application of the new generation of aviation broadband communication technology represented by 5G in China’s civil aviation.” At the regular press conference on the same day, Zhang Ruiqing, Deputy Director of the Air Traffic Management Industry Management Office of the Civil Aviation Administration express.
The new generation of aviation broadband communication technology is the key technology to promote the digital transformation of the civil aviation industry and empower “smart civil aviation”. At present, the application scenarios of the new generation aviation broadband communication technology in the field of civil aviation mainly include: the airport surface aviation dedicated network used by aircraft and vehicles in the airport flight area, the public network used by passengers in the terminal building, and the open space used by the front cabin of the aircraft during the flight phase. Communication network, and in-flight Internet used in the rear cabin, etc.
The establishment of China Civil Aviation 5G AeroMACS, 5G LDACS, 5G ATG and 5G public network and other technical standard systems and equipment R&D and application systems can provide solutions that combine 5G public and private networks, and secure and non-secure communications, so as to enable 5G truly empowers smart civil aviation and promotes the high-quality and safe development of civil aviation.
To solve the problem of slow in-flight WiFi network speed, civil aviation will accelerate the evolution and upgrading of network infrastructure from three aspects: first, to upgrade traditional satellite communication technology to high-throughput satellite communication technology; second, to combine ATG communication with new 5G infrastructure The system is upgraded from 4G to 5G communication technology; the third is to optimize the existing network structure and enhance network coverage.
02 Beidou’s “back to the bottom” open space cloud network security
In the air-ground cloud network industry map, the choice of the technology path of the space-earth interconnection is crucial. From the perspective of major global markets, ATG and satellite aircraft Internet complement each other, and the mainstream market land routes are dominated by ATG, which has become an industry consensus. The reason why ATG has become mainstream is mainly because ATG has larger bandwidth, lower cost and better experience under the same coverage area of land routes.
Compared with the use of 4G base stations, the use of ATG for flying over land in the 5G era can obtain greater bandwidth.
At the 2020 (2nd) Civil Aviation Air Traffic Management Science and Technology Exchange Conference, Li Xin, deputy director of the Technology Center of the Air Traffic Management Bureau of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, gave an outlook on the application of the Beidou system in the field of civil aviation. The future development of air traffic control technology requires innovation with independent intellectual property rights, which lays the foundation for the application of the Beidou system in the field of civil aviation. Li Xin said that China’s civil aviation is an important field for the Beidou system to go global and serve the world, and promoting the application of the Beidou system in the field of China’s civil aviation has important strategic significance for both China’s civil aviation and the Beidou system itself.
For China’s civil aviation, the use of the Beidou system provides an absolutely safe bottom line technically, and completely solves the safety risk of China’s civil aviation using satellite navigation technology from a legal and logical point of view.
Overall, the civil aviation system should serve the overall value of the global application of the Beidou system. The ultimate goal is to build a GNSS technology application system with Beidou as the core, and promote the construction of a new generation of air navigation systems with satellite-based positioning, navigation and timing technology as the core.
03 All parties in the 5G industry chain “rush to the sky”
Markets and Markets, the world’s second largest market research organization, pointed out in its latest report that the global aviation 5G market is expected to reach US$500 million by 2021, and this figure will increase to US$3.9 billion by 2026, with a compound annual growth rate during the period. The rate reached 52.7%.
In recent years, network operators dominated by China Telecom, communication equipment vendors represented by ZTE, and many airlines have entered the 5G+ smart aviation industry chain.
In terms of operators, as the main force in building a network power, digital China and a smart society, China Telecom takes the deepening of the integration of civil aviation and the Internet as its own responsibility in the 5G era. hereinafter referred to as “E-surfing Zhihang”), and began to build the world’s first 5G ATG commercial network.
As the only civil aviation ground-to-air communication operation company under China Telecom, Tianyi Zhihang is responsible for operating the 5G ATG air-ground cloud network, providing one-stop solutions for air-ground network, airborne equipment, operating platform software, and technical services to help airlines achieve greater flight efficiency. Data operation + in-flight Internet services promote the digital transformation and upgrading of the civil aviation industry. Tianyi Zhihang made its debut at the China Telecom 2020 Tianyi Intelligent Ecological Expo, and the 5G ATG Open Space Cloud Network has become an important member of the Tianyi Intelligent Ecology.
Zhang Weifeng, Senior Director of Transportation Department II of China Mobile (Shanghai) Industry Research Institute, revealed at the “2020 China Mobile Global Partner Conference – 5G Smart Civil Aviation Summit” that in order to better explore and enrich the application scenarios of 5G, and to meet the needs of civil aviation interconnection, China Mobile has launched the China Mobile Jiuxiao 5G ground-air communication platform. Zhang Weifeng pointed out that this is the world’s first end-to-end 5G ground-air communication test system.
In terms of communication equipment manufacturers, ZTE will launch the industry’s first 5G ATG solution during the 2021 MWCS. This solution can support rich aviation business and empower smart aviation.
Front cabin safety data transmission: For the massive operation data in the front cabin of the aircraft, such as flight data, in-cabin video data, aircraft position and attitude data, aircraft health monitoring data, etc. The real-time communication of aircraft manufacturers greatly improves flight safety and serves the air traffic control department and industry customers.
Rear cabin Internet access: Provide passengers with high-speed and low-latency in-flight high-quality Internet access, such as instant messaging, interactive games, live video, etc., and can cooperate with airlines and Internet Service Providers (ISP) to expand value-added services.
In 2020, the world’s first 5G ATG successfully tested and it is expected to add two more routes for commercial use in 2021.
In terms of airlines, China Eastern Airlines has cooperated with Huawei and China Unicom to launch a 5G-based “smart travel” service. In addition to passenger information identification and luggage control, service scenarios also include self-service face pass through check-in, security check, boarding, shuttle bus, aircraft cabin and other check-in nodes, as well as video and audio experiences such as cloud VR, high-definition video, and cloud games. The above services use the 5G network as the transmission channel and combine face recognition, AR, and RFID (radio frequency identification) technologies. It is the first 5G network commercial application in the civil aviation industry that covers the entire process from ticket purchase to cabin boarding. The application dimension includes passengers. , Luggage and Information.