Riding the wind of rebirth

"How many people can use your network?" Yan Xiao asked.

Zhou Zhi explained: "In theory, information capacity is directly related to bandwidth, and bandwidth itself is determined by frequency. Compared with microwave and shortwave, the bandwidth of optical communication is tens of millions of times higher. Therefore, both the channel capacity and the single-channel transmission speed are greater and faster than other propagation methods. If optimization technologies such as round-robin and signal-to-noise optimization are adopted, it can be used by hundreds of millions of terminals in the future."

"This is enough to meet the needs of people all over the world. However, this usage method is pyramid-shaped, which means that 80% of the communication tasks are completed by ground base stations, 80% of the remaining 20% ​​are completed by medium-Earth orbit communication relay satellites, and the rest are completed by high-Earth orbit satellites."

"Another point to emphasize is that communication here includes not only basic applications such as phone calls, but also network access and transmission."

"So that means we can go online in the hot spring mountains from now on?" That was the first thing Yan Xiao thought of.

“Yes, that’s one way to understand it,” Zhou Zhi said with a smile. “It’s an optical communication internet deployed in space.”

"How safe is this technology?" Liang Hong thought of another question: "If others also have laser receiving satellites, wouldn't they also be able to receive the laser signals emitted by the satellites?"

"This brings us to two other advantages of optical communication technology: anti-interference and security," Zhou Zhi said. "As we just mentioned, optical communication has very low signal attenuation. With appropriate optical transmitting and receiving equipment, it can achieve relay distances of thousands of kilometers on the ground alone. In space, the distance is even greater, reaching tens of thousands of kilometers. Compared to the traditional cable relay distance of only 1.5 kilometers, this is an absolutely huge advantage."

"Because the attenuation is small, fewer modulations are needed, which can save a lot of equipment costs, maintenance costs, and energy consumption."

"Furthermore, due to its extremely wide bandwidth, it can transmit up to 1Tb, or 1 trillion signals, in 1 second. This capability far exceeds the 10Gb of telecommunications, allowing a large number of users to receive the information they need simultaneously, such as movies or news."

"Although the propagation speed of light and electricity is theoretically the same, signal modulation and relay modulation depend on the response speed of the equipment. Therefore, optical communication equipment, which reduces many intermediate links, has a very fast transmission speed, usually reaching hundreds of megabits or even thousands of megabits per second, far exceeding traditional communication technologies such as cables and telephone lines."

"The remaining two best performance characteristics are anti-interference and security."

"Optical communication signals are transmitted over the ground via optical fibers and are not affected by external factors such as electromagnetic fields, thus possessing strong anti-interference capabilities. This allows optical communication to maintain stable signal transmission even in complex ground environments."

"This is even more true in space, where electromagnetic environments such as solar storms are more frequent and complex. This often causes radio, microwave, and shortwave communications to be reduced in effectiveness due to electromagnetic interference, but optical communications are unaffected unless our inter-satellite optical path and backup inter-satellite optical path are simultaneously blocked by objects, or the sun, laser transmitter, and laser receiver happen to be on the same straight line. Otherwise, there will be no signal interruption."

"Of course, the system designed by Academician Yu and Academician Zhang will avoid such situations."

"This answers the question Sister Hong just raised," Zhou Zhi said. "Ground optical signals can only be transmitted inside optical fibers and will not leak into the external environment, so optical communication technology has high confidentiality and security." "In space, however, because lasers have extremely strong directionality and are not easily diffused, unless an enemy satellite can find a satellite optical communication link with a receiving radius the size of a vegetable plate within a vast range of tens of thousands of kilometers, and correctly decipher it, it is impossible to steal the signal."

"But this creates another problem, because light travels in a straight line in space. If an enemy wants to steal our satellite's light signal, they would have to get in front of our receiver, and that position would block the receiver, so communication would be interrupted. Once a satellite detects an interruption in inter-satellite communication, it will stop sending signals on the current faulty link. This makes inter-satellite communication effective in the sense that it can only be destroyed, not stolen."

"Your design is so cunning!" Liang Hong laughed. "How did scientists come up with this?!"

"To calculate our inter-satellite communication link and launch a satellite to block it without knowing the satellite's trajectory in advance is a pipe dream," Zhou Zhi laughed. "Besides, our satellites have their own risk avoidance mechanisms. In similar situations, the satellites will adjust their attitude and position to rebuild the link connection."

"Amazing, truly amazing!" Yan Xiao exclaimed. "Just thinking about being able to chat on QQ in the middle of nowhere makes me think this system is fucking incredible!"

"This system isn't meant for Salt Mouse to use in places without internet or for Poetry to chat on QQ, is it?" Yang Honghui laughed. "Just now, Elbow mentioned that there are no base stations at sea, so I guess it's for ships at sea, right?"

“Besides ships, airplanes would work too,” He Shiqing immediately thought of her profession and said, “Especially those flying overseas, which would allow for global communication freedom.”

“You’re all right.” Zhou Zhi nodded and said, “This system is mainly used for global wireless signal relay, so it can be connected to any communication scenario.”

"But the more important part is actually in space. We are now building an 'information superhighway' in space, providing standard communication interfaces for other satellites. Future satellites will not need to carry their own bulky, high-power satellite-to-ground communication modules, but only small signal transmitters to transmit their own data to the StarPole satellite in microwave form. The rest of the work will be done by the space-to-ground network system. This will provide high-speed signal transmission services for satellites launched later, while reducing the design weight and energy consumption of satellites. These two indicators determine the cost of transportation and the function and lifespan, respectively, and are both important indicators. Saving these can be used for other more powerful, important, and professional functions."

Everyone contributed another round of "niu niu niu" (a Chinese internet slang term for winning big), and had gained a relatively deep understanding of the system. Then Yan Xiao asked another question: "Since this system is so advanced, then... why haven't we heard of any countries using it? For example, the United States, whose space shuttle is so advanced, we haven't heard of them having such a system?"

“This question is actually very simple, but it’s hard to convince everyone.” Zhou Zhi’s tone began to have a hint of pretentiousness: “Unlike the various industries in traditional manufacturing, this is a completely new track. We got off to an early start on this track and obtained many patents, some of which are even monopolistic patents.”

"Many of these patents were developed by us; many were invented by scientists from other countries, but no one was interested or dared to put them into practice and turn them into products; and many rely on upstream and downstream intellectual property constraints, which makes even powerful capital investors afraid."

"But we have conquered everything, from upstream to downstream, and even countless peripherals, and with the help of our country's outstanding scientists and technical talents, we have finally transformed it into this high-performance system."

"So the reason why no other country has used this system is very simple: because... we're already far ahead in first place on this track." (End of Chapter)