Black technology helps trillion yuan low altitude economy 'spread its wings and soar'

2024 is known as the "first year of low altitude economy" and the "first year of 5G-A commercial use". This year, the low altitude economy was first included in the Government Work Report, and several cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Changzhou announced the creation of a low altitude economy ecosystem. From aircraft manufacturing to infrastructure construction, the entire industry chain of low altitude economy has shown rapid development momentum. According to the Civil Aviation Administration of China, the market size of China's low altitude economy is expected to reach 1.5 trillion yuan by 2025 and 3.5 trillion yuan by 2035.

　　2024 is known as the "first year of low altitude economy" and the "first year of 5G-A commercial use". This year, the low altitude economy was first included in the Government Work Report, and several cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Changzhou announced the creation of a low altitude economy ecosystem. From aircraft manufacturing to infrastructure construction, the entire industry chain of low altitude economy has shown rapid development momentum. According to the Civil Aviation Administration of China, the market size of China's low altitude economy is expected to reach 1.5 trillion yuan by 2025 and 3.5 trillion yuan by 2035.

　　The "low altitude economy" and "5G-A" are supporting and achieving each other on the road ahead. The rapid development of the trillion yuan scale low altitude economy injects new impetus into the further development of 5G networks, and the development of 5G networks also helps the trillion yuan low altitude economy soar.

5G technology has great potential

　　Communications Navigation Surveillance (CNS) is the foundation of aviation industry operations. In high-altitude networks, regulatory agencies use equipment such as radar and broadcast based automatic correlation monitoring to manage civil aviation aircraft. However, in the low altitude field, traditional CNS methods are difficult to meet the regulatory needs of low altitude aircraft such as drones. Therefore, industry explorers place their hopes on 5G technology, especially 5G-A technology. The 5G-A communication base station has a perception function similar to radar, which can calculate the position of the terminal based on the distance information between the terminal and each base station, and achieve real-time monitoring of the aircraft.

　　According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China has built and opened over 4.1 million 5G base stations, and the 5G network continues to extend to rural areas, achieving "5G connectivity in every township"; 5G has been integrated into 80 major categories of the national economy, with a total of over 100000 application cases. The industry believes that relying on the large number of 5G base stations in China (which already have communication capabilities), coupled with network perception capabilities, and building 5G-A technology, can effectively solve the above-mentioned problems.

　　Compared with traditional radar sensing technology, 5G-A has more cost advantages in site resources, transmission resources, network operation and maintenance, and has advantages such as high accuracy, fast deployment, and easy networking. ”Cui Yijun, director of the Wireless Future Laboratory at ZTE Corporation (hereinafter referred to as "ZTE"), told Securities Daily reporters that the current low altitude network is not yet perfect in terms of low altitude communication and perception technology, with problems such as low perception accuracy and difficulty in continuous networking.

　　5G base stations originally only had communication capabilities, but millimeter wave radar can integrate sensing capabilities into the base station, further improving the accuracy of perception while having communication functions. ”The relevant person in charge of China Telecom Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "China Telecom") told reporters.

　　Tang Haiqing, a communication industry analyst at Tianfeng Securities, believes that the integration of communication and sensing is a new capability of 5G-A, which can enable base stations to balance communication and sensing capabilities. By providing cellular mobile communication capabilities and adding radar like sensing functions, base stations can effectively track aircraft and provide services such as airspace management and low altitude security. 5G-A can help promote better development of the low altitude economy.

Promote infrastructure construction

　　The comprehensive network layout is building a solid foundation for the construction of low altitude economic infrastructure. Taking China Mobile Limited (hereinafter referred to as "China Mobile") as an example, it has built the world's largest 5G communication network, with a total of over 2.3 million 5G base stations and more than 330 5G-A commercial cities; Building the world's largest 5G+Beidou high-precision positioning system and deploying 4400 ground-based augmentation stations can achieve dynamic centimeter level positioning accuracy, providing strong support for the development of low altitude economy.

　　China Mobile has the concept of "three networks" for the construction of low altitude economic infrastructure. The first network is the low altitude communication network, which achieves three-dimensional ubiquitous coverage of low altitude communication through the old ground network, new low altitude network, and satellite network; The second network is a low altitude navigation network that integrates positioning, dynamic 3D mapping, and other capabilities; The third network is a low altitude sensing network that leverages the leading advantages of 5G-A technology and the 4.9GHz golden frequency band to comprehensively enhance low altitude sensing performance.

　　China Telecom has also established the concept of "three networks". According to a person in charge of China Telecom, China Telecom's low altitude intelligent networking includes a low altitude communication network that connects with aircraft through 4G and 5G networks and enhances signals, a low altitude perception network that tracks, locates, and detects airspace below 300 meters through 5G millimeter wave base stations, and a low altitude computing power network that uses technologies such as artificial intelligence to achieve front-end data preprocessing and back-end data summary and analysis.

　ZTE has completed over 80 low altitude sensing pilot projects in 25 locations, covering various application scenarios such as logistics distribution, low altitude safety in key areas, scenic area management, airport security, etc.

　　In fact, infrastructure construction is an important guarantee for the "soaring" of the low altitude economy. In the face of future high-density massive flight activities and diversified low altitude economic application scenarios, Beidou navigation, satellite Internet, 5G-A technology, big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies add new momentum to low altitude infrastructure.

　The relevant personnel of Guangzhou Hager Communication Group Co., Ltd. said that under the wave of low altitude economy, the company has deployed the "Beidou+5G+satellite Internet" all-in-one all-in-one communication and navigation network and integrated space-time benchmark service base serving the low altitude economy.

　　In terms of computing power networks, many leading companies actively layout Wanka clusters to support massive flight scheduling and low altitude latency collaboration with rich computing power; In terms of empowering the development of low altitude economy with artificial intelligence, China Mobile is using AI to assist in the intelligence of aircraft. China Mobile's General Manager He Biao stated that China Mobile is empowering revolutionary breakthroughs in low altitude technology and innovative allocation of production factors through AI, comprehensively building a low altitude capability system, accelerating innovation in low altitude scenarios, promoting the construction of low altitude ecology, and helping China's low altitude economy soar and move steadily and far.

　　The development of industries cannot be separated from the advance construction of infrastructure, especially in the low altitude economy field. The improvement of basic communication networks and perception networks is the cornerstone of industry development, "said Wang Xing, Chief Analyst of Huatai Securities Communication, in an interview with Securities Daily.

　　With the gradual improvement of low altitude economic infrastructure, the core of low altitude economy is expanding from aircraft manufacturing to industry applications.

　　For example, in the low altitude economy scenario, China Unicom has collaborated with multiple drone manufacturers to develop multiple products.

　　In the cooperation model between China Unicom and Shenzhen DJI Innovation Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "DJI"), China Unicom relies on DJI drones and intelligent low altitude application platforms to achieve business scenarios such as drone route issuance, automated inspection, AI recognition, and 3D modeling. The relevant person in charge of China Unicom told Securities Daily reporters, "China Unicom can also set up electronic fences to warn and remind intruders of drones. In the future, China Unicom will continue to iterate electronic fence products to enable illegal aircraft to return or make emergency landings, in order to achieve the effect of drone countermeasures

　　China Mobile is accelerating the deep integration of digital intelligence technology and low altitude economy. For example, we are exploring the application of city level low altitude security inspection in Shenzhen, which has effectively improved inspection efficiency and saved human resources. The relevant person in charge of China Mobile Guangdong Company stated that in the next step, China Mobile will work together with all parties to vigorously promote scenario application innovation, systematically planning ten typical scenarios such as air patrol comprehensive management, low altitude logistics, low altitude agricultural technology, medical emergency, and airspace supervision.

　The low altitude economy is gradually reshaping the transportation pattern and logistics methods with disruptive power, injecting new impetus into economic development. Looking ahead to 2025, with the advancement of technology and the continuous expansion of application scenarios, the development momentum of low altitude economy is bound to become stronger, and its potential and value are highly anticipated.