Gather industry consensus and promote the high-quality development of the industry

The 2023 China Antenna RF Technology and Industry Development Conference was successfully held

On July 29, the "2023 China Antenna RF Technology and Industry Development Conference" was held in Xi'an, hosted by the Antenna System Industry Alliance and the Antenna and RF Technology Committee of the China Communications Society, and undertaken by the Key Laboratory of Antenna and Microwave Technology of Xidian University.

At the meeting, Duan Baoyan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and chairman of the Antenna and RF Technology Committee of the Chinese Society of Communications, Zhang Yanchuan, Secretary-General of the China Communications Society, Liu Hongwei, Vice President of Xidian University, experts from the three major operators, antenna industry chain manufacturers such as Huawei and Combo, and experts and scholars from Xidian University, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, etc., analyzed and discussed the core key technical problems and solutions of the construction and optimization of B5G/6G communications, and the academic research and technological innovation achievements of the antenna and RF industry. At the same time, it conducts a pragmatic analysis of the development status of antenna and RF industry and puts forward future technology foresight and development planning.

From following to leading: the development of China's antenna industry has entered a new stage

Duan Baoyan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, pointed out that the antenna system industry alliance has witnessed and promoted the development and growth of the industry since its establishment 12 years ago. China's antenna RF technology and industry from the beginning of learning imitation, to follow-up, and then to run alongside, and some fields have appeared to lead, and achieved gratifying results. In the face of the new development trend, Duan Baoyan put forward three urgent problems to be solved: first, the application of new technologies and new theories, such as AiP technology, metamaterials, artificial intelligence, and electromechanical coupling; Secondly, the emergence of new scenarios, the combination of antenna and radio frequency has brought new opportunities and challenges, the Internet of Everything, space-ground integrated network, wireless microwave energy transmission, synaesthesia computing integration, etc. all need to develop high-performance and cost-effective antennas; The third is the development under the new situation, green and low-carbon, because green is needed in the whole life cycle of the antenna.

Zhang Yanchuan, Secretary-General of the China Communications Society, pointed out that in the past three years, global operators have launched the large-scale deployment of 5G, and China's mobile communication base station antenna industry has also moved to a new stage under this opportunity, and its technology and products are in a leading position in the world. The industrial structure of mobile communication base station antenna is also constantly upgrading and transforming, gradually forming an industrial matrix with the head first-line enterprises as the core, focusing on innovation, optimization and upgrading. The China Communications Society will actively advocate and promote in-depth and high-level academic, technical and industrial exchanges in the field of antennas and radio frequency, strengthen the guidance of cutting-edge technologies, promote the combination of production, learning, research and application, promote advanced technology, promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, promote the formulation of technical standards, and popularize public scientific knowledge.

Heading for the 6G era: Antenna technology opens a new wave of innovation

At present, it is in an important window period for the formation of 6G concept and key technology reserves. Some new technologies have gradually become the focus of the industry's attention, and it is urgent to accelerate the innovation of 6G new antenna technology and meet the challenge.

Professor Liu Ying, vice chairman of the Antenna and RF Technology Committee of Xidian University and China Communications Society, said that the high-performance demand of 6G mobile communication has derived 6G antenna technology innovation, and she introduced new 6G antenna technologies from millimeter wave/terahertz, ultra-large-scale antenna, holographic MIMO, intelligent metasurface (RIS), orbital angle motion (OAM) and other aspects. Professor Liu Ying pointed out that 6G mobile antennas still face severe challenges, and from the perspective of hardware facilities, the maturity of antenna technology and technology is still low; In terms of resources, problems such as lack of space resources, serious coupling interference, and crowded spectrum resources need to be solved urgently, and there is a contradiction between limited space and the high-performance development of mobile communication antennas.

The high-performance antenna design based on mode regulation, including antenna multi-mode, isolation self-decoupling, transceiver full duplex and other technologies, breaks through the limitations of the "space" dimension, establishes a new dimension of mode regulation design, expands the freedom of mobile communication antenna design, provides new ideas for solving this contradiction, and is expected to provide new kinetic energy for the development of mobile communication antenna technology.

Wireless channel is the transmission medium of information transmission at both ends, and the characteristics of wireless channel determine the performance limit of wireless communication system, so channel research is the premise of designing 6G wireless communication system. Professor Zhang Jianhua, chairman of the ITU-R 5G channel model standard drafting group of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, said that 5G adopts a horizontal-vertical-time-frequency four-dimensional channel model, and 6G will introduce new technologies such as ultra-large-scale MIMO, RIS, ISAC, which means that it is necessary to continuously expand channel capabilities in multiple dimensions, which poses more challenges to channel research.

In the research of 6G, intelligent metasurface technology has attracted widespread attention in the industry and is considered to be one of the key technologies of 6G, and it is also the focus of the industry chain. Li Fuchang, director of China Unicom Research Institute, introduced that intelligent metasurface is the fusion innovation of metamaterials in the field of smart antennas, and is a multidisciplinary integration technology, including metamaterial science, antenna and circuit design, electromagnetic computing, wireless communication, intelligent control and other multidisciplinary technologies, which can provide new methods for breaking constraints in future wireless communication from the aspects of enhanced coverage, new architecture, synaesthesia integration, etc. He also pointed out that China Unicom Research Institute has built a smart endogenous wireless network global intelligent system from four levels: application domain, control domain, resource domain, and terminal domain.

Build a green network: Promote the "low-carbon" development of the antenna industry

According to the evolution trend of 6G service requirements and application scenarios, mobile communication networks have more significant requirements in terms of green energy saving, cost reduction and efficiency improvement, in-depth coverage of multi-dimensional scenarios, and improvement of network intelligence and efficiency.

Gao Feng, General Manager of the Network Optimization Product Department of China Mobile Design Institute, introduced that China Mobile is committed to the construction of intelligent green networks with dual energy efficiency and performance, focusing on user perception to achieve dual optimization of energy efficiency and performance. Gao Feng said that China Mobile Design Institute will work with industry colleagues to gradually establish an energy efficiency management mechanism for single-site to network-wide optimization, implement multi-dimensional energy saving, build a green and low-carbon wireless network, build an intelligent, highly reliable, full-site energy-efficient service and product system, and establish a network with dual energy efficiency and performance. At the same time, around the green planning to build the maintenance of the excellent camp, through the whole process of low-carbon operation and maintenance, multi-discipline cooperation, gradually build a low-carbon intelligent maintenance system, form a comprehensive, systematic and efficient operation and maintenance, promote the use of electricity, reduce consumption with use, and achieve efficient business energy collaboration.

Liu Lang, Vice President of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., pointed out that "dual carbon" brings new challenges and missions to antennas, and in response to the goal of dual carbon, Huawei has launched green and energy-efficient antennas, which should have higher efficiency, higher gain, greater power capacity, lighter weight, and more environmental protection characteristics. Huawei greatly improves the radiation efficiency of antennas through cable-free technology and multi-frequency decoupling technology, and further reduces the end-to-end carbon emissions of antennas through green automated manufacturing processes and low-carbon raw materials, further improving the "green" of antennas. Liu Lang pointed out that the future direction of green and energy-efficient antennas should be towards active and passive integration to greatly improve the energy efficiency of the entire link system. He also stressed that green and energy-efficient antennas should achieve network-free optimization and rapid replacement and deployment.

For live network applications: All-round innovation meets the needs of multiple service scenarios

Shi Meng, senior expert of CITIC Mobile Communication Technology Co., Ltd., pointed out that base station antenna products should be optimized in two directions: transmission efficiency improvement and sector efficiency improvement. In terms of transmission efficiency, including the efficiency of the feed network, the key nodes of the feed network; Sector efficiency aspects include new material boundaries and radiating unit filtering. Focusing on the technical development direction of application, the index system based on three-dimensional data is closer to practical application, and the corresponding evaluation dimension can be considered, and relevant evaluation dimensions, such as RESTA indicators and statistical methods, can be added to reflect the advantages of different schemes. At the same time, he also pointed out that with the improvement of the integration of base station antenna products, filtering, metamaterials, cable-free and other technologies will have their own more suitable scenarios.

Cao Jingyang of China Mobile Communications Research Institute pointed out that in addition to macro network coverage, there are also a large number of special indoor and outdoor scenarios that require deep coverage, and special antennas are the most cost-effective solution. He introduced the coverage characteristics and corresponding antenna innovative products in special scenarios such as residential areas, high-speed rail lines, rural areas and sea areas, and demonstrated the great value of special antennas for 5G deep coverage applications.

Tian Kaibo, senior expert of wireless technology pre-research of ZTE Co., Ltd., "Research on the Development of Space-Space-Ground Integration", pointed out that spatial integration is closely related to antennas and radio frequency. He introduced that the future air-space-ground integrated communication network is a three-dimensional layered, integrated and cooperative network based on ground network and space-based network as expansion, using unified technical architecture, unified technical system, and unified standards and specifications. Space-ground integrated network convergence scenarios include all-terrain coverage, M2M services, emergency communications, and broadcast services.

Chen Wenbin, head of the wireless maintenance professional team of the Wireless Optimization Center of China Mobile Communications Group Fujian Company, introduced that Fujian Mobile joined hands with China Mobile Design Institute to independently develop "wireless cloud bridge" products, which have the characteristics of "large bandwidth and non-line-of-sight", which solves the industry problem that "existing wireless transmission equipment cannot meet the 5G large-bandwidth backhaul". The product uses a 6G frequency band centimeter wave and plate-shaped bipolar antenna to achieve 5KM non-line-of-sight transmission, which can be widely used in various service scenarios such as emergency support, sea areas, islands, and mountainous areas.

China has built the world's largest 5G mobile network, antenna as the eyes and ears of the entire mobile communication system, the function and role irreplaceable. The past ten years is a decade of rapid changes and wonderful changes in information and communication, this decade of antenna alliance condenses the strength of industry, academia and research to forge ahead, jointly promote the construction of mobile communication technology network facilities, and contribute China's industry strength to the development of antenna RF technology and industry in China and the world.