Is the quality of the antenna a key to the quality of the wireless communication network?

For many people, mobile communications has become an integral part of life. Today, 3G is becoming more popular, and 4G is coming soon. From the 2G era, with voice and SMS communication to the current Internet, listening to music online, etc., people have put forward higher demand for mobile communication networks.

The antenna is the entrance and exit of the signal of the mobile communication network, and the quality of the antenna has a key effect on the quality of the wireless communication network. In an exclusive interview with this reporter, Duan Baoyan, president of the Antenna System Industry Alliance and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, pointed out that the antenna is like the eyes and ears of mobile communication. With the rapid development of mobile communication, the antenna needs to evolve. The antenna will be developed in the direction of broadband, multi-mode, intelligent and miniaturization.

The popularity of 3G has made "mobile broadband" possible, and as LTE networks continue to be commercialized around the world, traffic on mobile communication networks will surge. Biqi, director of China Telecom Technology Innovation Center, said that in the 2G era, the main mobile communication applications are voice and SMS; in the 3G era, the main application is online; in the 4G era, online multimedia applications such as high-definition video and online games will become mainstream. . It is estimated that from 2010 to 2015, traffic on mobile communication networks will increase by 26 times. This requires the antenna to support the development of broadband mobile networks.

For a long period of time in the future, a variety of mobile communication networks will coexist, and 2G, 3G and 4G networks will cooperate to provide mobile communication services. As new site resources become more and more difficult to obtain, reuse of existing sites and antenna feeds is one of the main ways to deploy in the future. With the gradual maturity of broadband antenna technology, multi-mode antenna systems will be widely used.

At the same time, as the coverage of mobile networks becomes more widespread, the number of antennas also increases rapidly. Duan Baoyan said that the traditional mechanical adjustment method has a large workload and high labor costs. The emergence and wide application of the electric adjustment method will effectively improve efficiency and reduce the cost of operator network maintenance.

In addition, as people's attention to radiation issues continues to increase, operators are increasingly demanding the appearance and volume of antennas. The high-performance, compact antenna can save installation space, and beautifying the antenna can not only increase the deployable scene, but also beautify the living environment of the residents. At present, such as water tower antennas and street lamp antennas have been applied in scale, and have received good results.

Duan Baoyan pointed out that in terms of theoretical design, China is at the global advanced level, but there is still a big gap between China and developed countries in terms of industrialization, especially in some key devices, we are still subject to people. At present, China's antenna industry is facing some outstanding problems, mainly due to imperfect standards and irrational competition.

The standard is not perfect. At present, there is no complete, scientific and objective antenna quality evaluation system in the industry. Chen Xinming, director of the equipment department of China Unicom Network Construction Department, said that the industry standard has made uniform provisions for the main performance indicators of the antenna, but did not give the definition and criteria for value. The carrier's network standard and base station environment are different, and the industry standard cannot meet the needs of different operators and different base station environments. For antennas with special scene requirements, industry standards cannot specify corresponding performance indicators, and there is no uniform measurement standard.

The competition is irrational. Although the development of technology has reduced costs, vicious competition has hindered the further development of technology. In recent years, the price war in the industry has intensified, and there has been a vicious competition situation that does not cost. The contradiction between price and quality has become increasingly prominent. Duan Baoyan said that it is an urgent task for the antenna industry to develop healthily by letting prices return to a reasonable level and breaking the vicious competition.

In order to solve various problems in the development of the industry and promote the combination of “production, study and research”, the Antenna System Industry Alliance was established in Xi'an University of Electronic Science and Technology. Duan Baoyan pointed out that the antenna system industry alliance mainly has two major tasks. One is to promote the rapid development of antenna technology, and the other is to continuously improve the industry standards. It is hoped to promote extensive communication and cooperation among all parties in the industry, and make China move from a big communication country to a communication power. At present, the Antenna System Industry Alliance has 23 enterprises and institutions in production, learning, research and use.