UNISOC first 5G IoT-NTN satellite communication SoC V8821, is based on the 3GPP NTN R17 standard and leverages the IoT NTN network as its infrastructure, facilitating seamless integration with terrestrial core networks. By utilizing L-band maritime satellites and S-band Tiantong satellites, V8821 offers functionalities such as data transmission, text messaging, voice calls, and location sharing. It also supports expansion to access other high-orbit satellite systems, making it ideally suited for communication needs in areas with limited cellular network coverage, including oceans, urban fringes, remote mountainous regions, and more.
V8821 supports the TCP/IP protocol, enabling compatibility with various upper-layer services and inheriting common IoT protocols for quick integration into existing data platforms. In terms of hardware configuration, V8821 flexibly supports customers in reusing hardware resources from existing solutions, enhancing deployment efficiency and avoiding issues like high hardware costs and lengthy timelines.
UNISOC participated in and completed China's first 5G NTN mobile phone direct-to-satellite field validation. By adopting vivo's highly integrated RF antenna solution and a vivo satellite communication terminal prototype embedded with UNISOC's V8821 chip, the team achieved 5G NTN mobile phone direct-to-satellite uplink and downlink connections under the Tiantong satellite environment. This demonstration successfully enabled intercommunication between vivo phones, showcasing the transmission and reception of text messages via satellite communication, with functionality and performance meeting expectations.
IoT based on satellite communication addresses pain points such as the inability to transmit information monitoring data in areas with no cellular communication signal coverage. UNISOC participated in and completed multiple field tests of IoT application scenarios based on Tiantong satellites in regions like Yanqing, Beijing, and Dianshan Lake, Suzhou. These scenarios included water surface buoys, satellite messengers, and satellite-terrestrial dual-mode trackers. By leveraging the satellite communication chip V8821 embedded in the terminals and Quectel's latest satellite communication module CC950U-LS, the collected sensor data, emergency messages, and terminal location data were successfully transmitted to cloud platforms in real-time via satellite, achieving satisfactory results.