Recently, 5G has once again been pushed to the forefront. On February 21, 2020, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held a meeting to make specific arrangements for coordinating epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development. In the measures to play a key role in effective investment, it proposed to accelerate the development of biomedicine, medical equipment, 5G network, industrial Internet, etc. On February 22nd, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology held a teleconference to accelerate the development of 5G and ensure the resumption of work and production in the information and communication industry. The conference emphasized the need to accelerate the commercialization of 5G and promote high-quality development of the information and communication industry. Recently, 11 national ministries including the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Transport jointly issued the "Intelligent Vehicle Innovation and Development Strategy" (hereinafter referred to as the "Strategy"), which proposes to promote the coordinated construction of 5G and the Internet of Vehicles in conjunction with the commercial deployment of 5G.

1： The "dual sword combination" of 5G and Beidou

In 2020, 5G has become a new trend for future development, but the author believes that we still need to think calmly. Although the deep integration of 5G with vertical industries in the enterprise market (2B market) will empower industry transformation, upgrading, and high-quality development, in the process of integration with the industry, 5G alone is still difficult to achieve. Only by forming a dual wheel drive with another country's important tool, the Beidou satellite system, can we fully realize the synergistic effect brought by technological innovation.

5G has the advantages of high speed, large capacity, high reliability, and low latency, while the Beidou satellite system can provide accurate positioning, navigation, and timing functions. In 2020, with the deployment of two Beidou geostationary orbit satellites in space, China's Beidou global system network will be fully completed. The deep integration and mutual empowerment of 5G and Beidou will bring unprecedented changes to various industries.

2： 5G+Beidou to build a smart transportation network

The transportation industry has a stronger and more diverse demand for the application of 5G+Beidou. Currently, it is the historical intersection of a new round of technological revolution, industry transformation, and transformation of development mode. The transportation industry should seize this opportunity, deeply promote the deep integration of new generation information and communication technologies such as big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, 5G, and the Internet of Things with the transportation industry, create a new engine for industry innovation and development, and lead the high-quality development of the industry. This is also emphasized in the "Outline for Building a Strong Transportation Country", which emphasizes the need to shift from relying on traditional elements to focusing more on innovation driven transformation.

Transportation is the "vanguard" of socio-economic development. To achieve moderate and advanced development, 5G and Beidou facilities are the foundation. Therefore, they should be included in the category of new transportation infrastructure. To do a good job, we must first sharpen our tools. The construction of transportation infrastructure has always been a stabilizer and ballast for stable investment and growth. In the increasingly saturated situation of traditional transportation infrastructure, it is necessary to open up new markets, which naturally include the construction of new infrastructure such as 5G and Beidou.

In the early stages of highway planning and construction in the future, the construction of 5G base stations, Beidou ground augmentation benchmark stations, and related intelligent systems along the highway should be included. It is necessary to combine the four dimensions of "end, management, cloud, and use" to integrate perception, transmission, computing, and intelligent applications.

So what is the investment value of 5G base stations in the transportation industry? Based on the initial construction cost of 500000 yuan for a single base station, the unobstructed coverage area of a single base station is 350 meters, and 3 base stations need to be built per kilometer, with a base station construction cost of 1.5 million yuan per kilometer. Transportation investment has the characteristic of economies of scale. Currently, the total length of highways in China exceeds 140000 kilometers. If we want to achieve full 5G coverage, we need to invest about 220 billion yuan. This is only the investment scale of highways. If it is extended to ordinary trunk highways, railways, waterways, etc., the investment scale will be in the trillions. As for the investment scale of the Beidou ground augmentation benchmark station, it is likely to be a considerable number.

3： Application scenarios of 5G+Beidou in the field of transportation

How can new infrastructure empower the high-quality development of the transportation industry? In other words, it is about how to achieve measurable and controllable traffic management, as well as precise and timely service. This article provides a brief explanation of the following application scenarios.

1. Autonomous driving technology

Compared to the complex and ever-changing urban road traffic, the driving environment on highways is relatively simple, so autonomous driving technology is relatively easy to implement in areas with a single driving environment such as highways. However, there is no final conclusion on the safety of 5G autonomous driving. Autonomous driving requires high-precision positioning at the lane level and centimeter level, which needs to be achieved through an enhanced positioning system composed of satellites, ground augmentation reference stations, and vehicle terminals, that is, through 5G+Beidou dual wheel drive.

2. Free flow toll system on highways

The satellite positioning free flow toll system for highways can achieve accurate path recognition of vehicles based on satellite positioning technology. At the same time, through 5G wireless access, it can quickly upload the path information of vehicles at various recognition points and high-definition checkpoint data, realizing real-time calculation of tolls and real-time notification to drivers.

3. Automatic monitoring of the status of transportation infrastructure

Landslides and collapses of transportation infrastructure such as long bridges and tunnels can block traffic for a long time and cause property damage. Real time monitoring of the status of transportation infrastructure can prevent problems before they occur. Through 5G+Beidou, millimeter level displacement sensing can be achieved, which can detect potential hazards of related facilities in advance, issue timely warnings, and handle them in advance. This ensures the safety and smoothness of vehicle travel, truly achieving smooth flow of people and goods. The transportation industry has the characteristics of multiple points, long lines, and wide coverage. To this end, the advantages of 5G+Beidou in precision, speed, and large connectivity can be fully utilized. Through wireless connection of monitoring devices, rapid deployment, optimization, and maintenance can be further achieved to meet the development needs of comprehensive transportation.

4. Drone applications

Drones have broad prospects in intelligent applications such as transportation construction, management, maintenance, and operation. We believe that with the support of technologies such as 5G and Beidou, drones have great potential and promising prospects in the transportation industry.

Under the dual wheel drive of 5G+Beidou new infrastructure, the transportation industry will have more new models, formats, and industries being born, which will bring greater space for the transformation and upgrading of the entire industry and the promotion of high-quality development, such as the trajectory tracking of "two passengers and one danger" operating vehicles based on satellite positioning, more accurate and efficient networked control, etc. Of course, in terms of the investment market, the construction of 5G communication networks and the Beidou satellite system is not just the construction of tangible base stations and ground stations, but also the carrier network and core network of 5G, which will bring about a larger investment market. With the support of new infrastructure in these industries, more trillion level new industries will be stimulated.