ZTE held a "Building Low-Altitude Roads" themed experience exchange event in Shenzhen, empowering a new chapter in the development of the low-altitude economy
On December 5, ZTE's "Building Roads at Low Altitude" themed experience exchange event was held at Shenzhen Talent Park, a low-altitude economic demonstration zone jointly built by China Mobile and ZTE. At the experience exchange event, ZTE demonstrated the flight of multiple drones with complex trajectories and the trajectory perception of commercial Meituan drones. At the same time, Cui Yijun, director of ZTE's Wireless Future Laboratory, and Zhao Zhiyong, director of ZTE's 5G-A synaesthesia products, shared ZTE's innovative practices and thoughts in the field of low-altitude economy from the perspectives of policy, technology, and industry applications.
The trinity of policy, application and technology drives the rapid development of low-altitude economy
Cui Yijun mentioned that the driving force for the accelerated development of the low-altitude economy is mainly the integrated operation of policies, applications and technologies. First of all, policy-driven is the key factor in the continuous upgrading of the low-altitude economic strategy. In recent years, the top-level planning at the national level has been continuously deepened, injecting strong impetus into the development of the low-altitude economy. In 2021, the "Outline of the National Comprehensive Three-dimensional Transportation Network Planning" first proposed the concept of low-altitude economy; in 2023, the Central Economic Work Conference pointed out that it is necessary to accelerate the development of new quality productivity of low-altitude economy; at present, according to statistics, more than 20 provinces in my country have written the development of low-altitude economy into the work report of local governments or issued relevant policies, competing to layout low-altitude economy, hoping to expand new markets based on new technologies.
Secondly, application-driven is an endogenous force to achieve a closed business loop. Manned services, cargo services, low-altitude security, low-altitude operations, public security assistance, etc. have become the main scenarios for the application of low-altitude economy. In Cui Yijun's view, without these business scenarios, the low-altitude economy will not be able to form a closed business model loop, and industrial development will also face huge challenges, which will also become the core of the entire low-altitude economy.
Finally, the comprehensive evolution of multi-dimensional technology is also one of the important factors driving the development of the low-altitude economy. Cui Yijun said that the technical dimension is mainly divided into three aspects: one is drone technology. As the main body of the low-altitude economy, drones must first be lightweight, while continuously improving key technologies such as obstacle avoidance, hovering, fault tolerance, and forced landing; the second is new energy technology. On the one hand, it directly affects the flight safety of drones. On the other hand, the three-electric technologies such as batteries, electronic controls, and motors are also the core of the rapid development of eVTOL; the third is intelligent networking technology, including Beidou + RTK navigation technology, 5G synaesthesia integration, and AI, which is also the key to the large-scale development of the low-altitude economy.
5G-A inter-sensing computing and control leads the low-altitude intelligent network to achieve universal "connection" and easy "management"
The demand for network infrastructure in the low-altitude economy is divided into two aspects: low-altitude communication and low-altitude perception. Low-altitude communication is used for drone image and data transmission, and the core requirements are large uplink, continuous coverage, low latency, and high reliability. For cooperative drones, low-altitude perception is mainly for monitoring and service, sensing the position, altitude, heading, speed, etc. of such drones; for non-cooperative drones, it is mainly for detection and countermeasures, to achieve black flight warning, emergency response, and ensure airspace safety.
At present, low-altitude networks are still imperfect in low-altitude communication and perception technology. Low-altitude communication mainly has problems such as point-to-point communication not supporting non-line-of-sight flight and insufficient low-altitude coverage of 4/5G networks. Perception has problems such as low perception accuracy and difficulty in continuous networking.
Cui Yijun said that in order to solve the above problems, ZTE relies on 5G-A inter-sensing computing and intelligence integrated technology to build a low-altitude intelligent network. 5G-A inter-sensing, computing and intelligent integration technology has both communication and perception capabilities. It uses the same set of equipment to meet the low-altitude communication and perception needs of drones, and can achieve the goal of "connecting" drones and making them easy to "manage". Compared with traditional technologies, it has the advantages of high precision, fast deployment, and easy networking.
In terms of communication technology, ZTE has launched the industry's first self-transmitting and self-receiving 128TR AAU device for low altitude, which can support a large 65° angle, and can better take into account the communication needs of the ground and low altitude, and ensure the stability and reliability of ground and low altitude communications. In terms of perception technology, ZTE's 5G-A inter-sensing integration technology introduces continuous wave and pulse wave dual-waveform intelligent perception technology for the first time, and relies on innovative intelligent metasurface technology to solve the problem that traditional radar equipment is difficult to balance between long-distance detection and close-range blind spots. In addition, ZTE's 5G-A synaesthesia solution has added an intelligent computing unit. Combined with the edge computing architecture of the communication base station, it can complete trajectory perception, image rendering, trajectory calculation and depiction and other functions locally, thereby displaying the drone trajectory and realizing the digitization and refinement of low-altitude navigation, further improving the safety and efficiency of low-altitude flight.
Referring to ZTE's future plans in the low-altitude field, Zhao Zhiyong said that as an equipment manufacturer in the information and communication industry, ZTE will focus on the synaesthesia technology and the synaesthesia network derived from it, and can also participate in platform construction, including servers, information services, etc., to enable the construction of low-altitude infrastructure. On the one hand, it will help the ground communication network to extend to low altitudes, starting from base stations, networks, and public navigation, to create a low-altitude communication, monitoring and navigation network, safeguard the core interest system of the low-altitude economy, and build an ecological chain of low-altitude infrastructure with industry partners. On the other hand, taking low-altitude safety as the bottom line, using the perception capabilities of communication base stations, intelligent perception and identification of flight activities in low-altitude airspace such as drones and aircraft are carried out, thereby ensuring low-altitude safety.
In recent years, ZTE has made a number of breakthroughs in the field of low-altitude economy. ZTE launched the industry's first self-transmitting and self-receiving large-angle model, which can support a large angle of 65° and achieve communication and perception capabilities at an altitude of 600 meters. In addition, ZTE has long been committed to the standard promotion, technology research and development, and ecological construction of tele-sensing, computing, and intelligence integration technology. So far, ZTE has worked with operators and third-party partners to complete more than 80 low-altitude tele-sensing pilot projects in 25 provinces and cities, covering logistics distribution, low-altitude safety in key areas, and other application scenarios.
ZTE has never stopped on the road of development. In the future, it will continue to use its technological accumulation and innovation in the ICT field to provide solid network support for the development of the low-altitude economy, and work with operators and partners to build low-altitude roads and create a digital road for the development of the low-altitude economy.
TAEPO's short Reviews：
With its profound industry insights and forward-looking thinking, ZTE is not only at the forefront of the industry in the exploration of the low-altitude economy, but also sets a new direction for future technological development.
Compared with ZTE, we are a small company in the communications industry. However, in the future, we particularly hope to strengthen cooperation with large companies and industry ecosystems in the application scenarios of communications equipment and technologies, and accelerate innovation and development by sharing technology and experience.
Come on, TAEPO！ 
