On July 1, 2023, the Sailing Summit of SparkLink Wireless Short Range Communication Alliance was held in Shenzhen, showing the world the historic progress of SparkLink's technology industrialization and commercialization.
At the meeting, TRIDUCTOR Technology Co., Ltd., Beijing SYLINCOM Technology Co., Ltd. and Chengdu AICH Technology Co., Ltd. jointly released a series of chips, modules and development boards supporting SparkLink technology, including TRIDUCTOR Communication SparkLink SLB chip TR5510 and development board, SparkLink SLE chip TR5312 and development board; SYLINCOM SparkLink SLB chip DX-T600 and SparkLink module SLM10; AICH Technology SparkLink SLE chip AiW9761E (2023Q4) and SparkLink SLE chip AiW9564E/AiW9568E (2024Q1).
Figure1: Sailing Summit of SparkLink Wireless Short Range Communication Alliance
In addition to chip release, Beijing STARPOINT Technology Co., Ltd., HBTE Technology Co., Ltd. and Shenzhen ITENEST Technology Co., Ltd. also released SparkLink series test instruments, STARPOINT SparkLink SLB Comprehensive Tester 9500Pro-SLT and SparkLink SLB/SLE Non-signaling Comprehensive Tester SP9020; SparkLink SLE RF tester WT-428, SparkLink SLE RF tester WT-328E, SparkLink SLE RF tester WT-328; HEBT Technology SparkLink SLE Protocol Tester HBTE-SLE1000. The release of series of SparkLink test instruments indicates that SparkLink's test and certification system has entered a substantial landing stage, which can not only ensure the consistency and interoperability of SparkLink products, but also ensure that SparkLink products meet the performance requirements.
The official release of the SparkLink series chips, modules, and development boards completes the last piece of the puzzle for the SparkLink industry. This signifies that the commercialization of SparkLink has entered the fast lane, and 2023 is expected to be the inaugural year of SparkLink's commercial takeoff.
Figure2: SparkLink commercialization pioneers-test instrument
In addition, the latest white paper, "White Paper on SparkLink's Wireless Short-range Communication Technology Security-Network Security", made its debut at the summit, bringing more technical enlightenment to the industry. It includes five parts: typical application scenarios of SparkLink technology, network security threats, network security requirements, SparkLink 1.0 network security technology and summary and prospect, which are led by the Security Working Group and jointly compiled by 17 member units. The release of the white paper will help the industry to strengthen its effective response to network security threats and provide security for the industrial landing of SparkLink technology.
Figure3: icon of sparklink
International SparkLink Wireless Short Range Communication Alliance (short for "SparkLink Alliance") is an industrial alliance dedicated to globalization, and SparkLink Alliance was formally established on September 22, 2020. On June 1, 2023, he obtained the Registration Certificate of Social Organization Legal Person issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and became the second international industry and standards organization registered in Shenzhen. Up to now, SparkLink Alliance has developed 303 member units at home and abroad, including 53 head enterprises, 65 Shenzhen enterprises and 13 international enterprises. It not only realizes the complete coverage of chips, modules, equipment, solutions, testing, operation and security services, but also the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain. It also absorbed members of scientific research institutions, universities, standards organizations and other institutions, and comprehensively concentrated the joint efforts of industries to solve the pain points of the industry.
The rapid development of SparkLink Alliance is not accidental, but based on the deep understanding and foresight of the existing wireless short-range communication technology. Wireless short-range communication technology refers to wireless communication technology with communication distance within tens of meters. The mainstream technologies include but are not limited to Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Near Field Communication (NFC), LR-WPAN (IEEE 802.15. 4) and Zigbee, 6LoWPAN, Thread and Matter developed from it. This technology is realized by RF CMOS integrated circuit. According to the forecast of third-party organizations, the shipment of wireless short-range communication chips will exceed 16 billion in 2023.
With the development of smart cars, smart terminals, smart homes and intelligent manufacturing industries, wireless short-range communication technologies such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are difficult to meet the communication requirements of new scenarios in terms of delay, reliability, synchronization accuracy and security. For example, in the vehicle-mounted active noise reduction scene, the end-to-end delay is required to be "100 microseconds"; In some advanced intelligent driving scenarios, such as the cooperative driving of autonomous motorcade, the communication delay requirement may be further increased to the order of tens of microseconds. Only such delay guarantee can achieve high-precision vehicle control and close coordination.
Nowadays, in the multi-device scenario of intelligent terminal, it is necessary to ensure high-precision synchronization and millisecond low delay of multi-devices. In the self-organized network cooperation of each speaker in the smart speaker home surround sound system, it is necessary to accurately measure the relative position, and support the high-precision synchronization of multiple speakers at microsecond level, so as to sense the user's position and direction, and automatically switch the playing speakers according to the user's position. In the industrial production process, the items to be tested are photographed by industrial cameras and uploaded to the cloud for image recognition and analysis, which replaces manual real-time defect monitoring, automatic sorting and product quality detection, and drives the cooperative operation between mobile devices and worktables in real time. This process requires high communication reliability and delay.
However, the delay of the existing wireless short-range communication technology is generally in the order of tens of milliseconds, and there is a gap of 2 ~ 3 orders of magnitude between them. The traditional short-range wireless communication technology is not competent for this series of complex requirements, which can’t be solved simply by improving the performance of the existing technology. Under such a background, SparkLink put forward a new generation of wireless short-range communication technology, which is called "SparkLink", which means the ultimate connection performance. SparkLink technology has the core technical advantages of low delay, high concurrency, high reliability, anti-interference and accurate synchronization.
Figure4: features about SparkLink
Air interface access layer technology is the core of SparkLink wireless communication system. According to the different roles of SparkLink access layer, Sparklink devices are divided into G (Grant) nodes and T (Terminal) nodes. Each G node can manage a certain number of T nodes, and G nodes and their connected T nodes form a communication domain together.
Specifically, in order to meet the communication requirements in different scenarios, SparkLink technology provides two air interface access technologies, which are called SparkLink Basic Access Technology (SLB) and SparkLink Low Power Access Technology (SLE). SLB and SLE are two technologies facing different wireless short-range communication application scenarios, which complement each other and will continue to evolve according to business requirements.
Figure5: functions of SLB and SLE
SLB is mainly used in intelligent terminals, smart cars and other scenarios, carrying business scenarios represented by vehicle-mounted active noise reduction, wireless screen projection, industrial machinery motion control, etc. Its remarkable features are low delay, high reliability, fine synchronization and high concurrency, and it is responsible for high-speed and high-quality connection. SLB supports data transmission mode in data link layer, which greatly reduces system overhead and improves multi-node access capacity of the system. SLB supports optimal allocation of access resources and multi-user low-latency access systems. SLB can support unidirectional delay less than 20 μ s, 99.999% transmission reliability, 1 μ s multipoint synchronization accuracy and single stream peak spectral efficiency greater than 5bps/Hz.
SLE interface is more suitable for low-power lightweight connection, such as all kinds of smart wearable products. SLE uses single carrier transmission and supports GFSK, BPSK, QPSK and 8PSK with modulation. By adopting Polar channel coding, transmission reliability is improved, retransmission is reduced, power consumption is saved, and broadcast channel functions and services are simplified to reduce congestion possibility. Compared with the existing low-power wireless short-range technology, SLE can stably support 128kbps audio transmission under the same deep coverage conditions, support higher speed (peak 12Mbps), support lossless audio transmission, support reliable multicast transmission, support heterogeneous access, support hundreds of nodes access, and specifically support 250 μ s bidirectional interaction, receiver sensitivity as low as-110dBm, current within 2mA and concurrent access of up to 256 users.
The upper layer of SparkLink adopts a unified architecture, which consists of basic service layer and basic application layer:
- The basic service layer provides service functions such as device discovery, service management, connection management, QoS management, measurement management, data transmission and adaptation, information security, multi-domain management and coordination, and 5G convergence for the upper-level business data, which is used to support the connection interaction requirements of the whole business cycle from business trigger to business end. At the same time, the basic service layer can also carry out cross-layer interaction with the bottom layer and provide the selection and switching of the bottom transmission path according to the business requirements and transmission conditions.
- The basic application layer is used to realize various application functions. According to the common business demands, the basic application layer can define a general application service framework including a general communication framework and a general audio and video framework for specific applications to call and realize modular design. The basic application layer can also define a unified configuration document for specific applications, which is used to realize the end-to-end interaction of services and ensure the interconnection between different vendors.
In order to speed up the technological ecological development of SparkLink, SparkLink Alliance first focuses on standard setting. SparkLink 1.0 series standards were formulated at the end of 2021, and 1.0 standards built a core end-to-end architecture based on SparkLink access layer, basic service layer and basic application layer. SparkLink 2.0 standard is divided into two stages, the first stage is basically completed by the end of 2022, and the second stage is expected to be released by the end of this year.
In order to better incubate the SparkLink industry ecology, better enable industry partners and accelerate application innovation, SparkLink Alliance has also established OpenLab, which is committed to becoming a first-class SparkLink technology innovation application service platform in China and a platform connecting SparkLink technology and application innovation partners. OpenLab builds support capabilities, gathers the strength of top technical experts in the alliance, and sets up an expert resource pool to provide ecological partners with services such as developer kit creation, developer empowerment, and multi-dimensional industrial promotion and marketing in the process of product and application development. OpenLab realizes agile and efficient one-stop development experience, provides all-round technical data, reference design, development version and development tool chain, and builds a debugging environment including key performances such as delay, interference, networking and interconnection, and assists partners to complete performance optimization and product certification.
OpenLab not only plays the role of technology enabling, but also helps partners effectively realize business ecological incubation and business transformation. The results showcase and application experience area will feature excellent products and technological prototypes from partners, open for upstream and downstream industry participants to visit and experience. It provides a high-quality platform for promoting and publicizing products and technological achievements, promoting the maturity of the SparkLink industry ecosystem, supporting the commercial implementation of SparkLink, and assisting SparkLink in achieving a successful launch.
For a long time, SparkLink Alliance has been committed to building a new generation of wireless short-range communication industry, and working with partners from all walks of life to promote cross-industry unified standards, promote technological innovation and build an industrial ecology. SparkLink technology has injected a strong boost into short-range wireless communication, emerging as a shining new star in this track. With the continuous development and application of SparkLink wireless short-range communication technology, it is believed that the SparkLink Alliance will continue to play an active role in driving innovation and progress in wireless communication technology.
SparkLink chip is grandly released, injecting a booster into wireless communication technology-China.exportsemi.com
