By Gabby Chen

(JW Insights) Feb 8 -- UNISOC (紫光展锐), China's leading IC design company, successfully completed the world's first S-band 5G NTN (non-terrestrial network) technology satellite verification, collaborating with its industrial partners such as CTSAT, ZTE, SkyCells, CAICT, and China Telecom (Guangdong), according to UNISOC.

This trial was based on the 3GPP R17 NTN protocol, which broke through the protocol matching problems such as frequency and time synchronization and realizing self-controllable 5G NTN end-to-end full link interconnection.

The tested device in this verification is developed based on UNISOC's R17 NTN chip. Through the S-band, it interconnected with the terrestrial network by connecting to China's self-developed Tiantong-1 satellite, gateway station, 5G NTN base station, and the terrestrial core network.

The trial also initially verified the feasibility of the 3GPP R17 NTN protocol-based direct connection between the satellite and the mobile phone, and space-ground integrated IoT technology solutions.

Founded in 2001, the Shanghai-based UNISOC offers chips for mobile communication central processing units, baseband, AI and radio frequency, and other chips for consumer and industrial electronics.