Academician Wu Hequan: A communications pioneer with a clear eye

Text | "China Science News" reporter Feng Lifei

Photo provided by Wu Hequan interviewee

Wu Hequan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, is 81 years old this year, and his hair has turned gray, but like when he was young, he has a deep impression with a pair of bright eyes under thick black eyebrows.

As one of the earliest core backbones engaged in digital communication technology research in China, Wu Hequan has witnessed, participated in and led the development of communication technology in mainland China for more than 60 years. He has been rooted in the front line of scientific research for decades, and has proposed a technical system suitable for China's development. He has also served as the "helmsman" of major communication research projects in many countries, setting the direction and layout for the strategic development of the mainland's communications industry.

In his old age, Wu Hequan is still concerned about the development of China's communications industry.

"In the past, China Communications has developed very well, thanks to our late-mover advantage, overtaking in corners, and the number of users is in a room for growth. In the future, the development of China's communications cannot be completely driven by quantity, but must have more valuable connotations to allow users to have a better experience. He said.

If you look at the fire, recognize the direction and follow the trend

In January 1943, Wu Hequan was born in a happy family in Guangdong Province, he was the fourth of seven siblings, and his parents were both employees of the Guangdong Provincial Post and Telecommunications Administration. Unfortunately, when he was fifteen or sixteen years old, his parents died of illness one after another, and in order to reduce the burden on his family, Wu Hequan, who was in his first year of high school, dropped out of school and went to a technical secondary school, Guangdong Provincial School of Posts and Telecommunications, and since then he has formed an indissoluble bond with correspondence.

In 1958, Wu Hequan, who had just entered the school gate of the School of Posts and Telecommunications, followed the engineering team of the Guangdong Provincial Administration of Posts and Telecommunications to Zijin and Jieyang to participate in the construction of national defense lines and build communication lines. In 1960, he was sent to the Guangdong Provincial College of Posts and Telecommunications after the restructuring of the undergraduate department of cable communications, after the school adjusted and merged many times, in the third year of the undergraduate was arranged to study in Wuhan Institute of Posts and Telecommunications, after graduating in 1964, he was assigned to the first research office of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications Research Institute (carrier communication research laboratory) work.

"The main communication service in the 60s of the 20th century was telephone. At that time, the domestic telephone transmission mode was symmetrical cable in the city, and the long-distance was mainly overhead open wire, and the number of sound channels that could be transmitted on a pair of copper wires was only 12, and the number of circuits was very tight, and long-distance calls were very difficult to get through. At that time, our research institute was in Beijing, and the corresponding factory was in Shanghai, and the long-distance phone calls for work appointments were often not connected until noon, because there was a queue. Wu Hequan recalled.

In the 70s of the 20th century, the international research on digital communication technology has started, and the mainland's long-distance telephone still has only one coaxial cable from Beijing to Shanghai, and several symmetrical cables from Beijing to Shijiazhuang, from Chengdu to Leshan, and all of them are copper wires, and the communication technology facilities are decades behind foreign countries.

In this context, Wu Hequan became the "first batch of crab eaters" in the field of digital communication in China at that time, participated in and presided over the development of a variety of communication equipment and systems, and put them into application and formed an industry. These research experiences and keen observations have given him insight into the development of the international communications industry, and he has stepped forward at critical moments many times to make suggestions for the development direction of the mainland's communications industry.

In 1969, Wu Hequan was engaged in the development of 24-channel pulse code modulation (PCM) terminal equipment in the 505 factory of Sichuan Meishan Telecommunications Bureau. Limited by the level of domestic devices at that time, they made a simplified version of 24-channel 7-bit equipment on the basis of American standards, and developed the first local telephone digital relay system in China. This achievement attracted the post and telecommunications bureaus in Honghu, Hubei, Jiaxing, Zhejiang and other places to come to study, and the digitization of local dialects in these places has also been at the forefront of the country.

At that time, following the PCM24 in the United States, the standard for PCM30 in Europe was proposed. It is unclear which way China's digital communication standards should go.

At a meeting held by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications in Chongqing in April 1975, the discussion on this issue reached a fever pitch. Wu Hequan bluntly pointed out that the structure of 24 channels is unreasonable, the synchronization performance is poor, the implementation is complex, and the scalability is not good, and put forward the overall plan for the development of 30 roads. "The PCM base group is the foundation of the digital communication system, and if the foundation is not selected well, the impact on the future is immeasurable." He said.

After demonstration, the mainland digital communication system finally adopted the 30-channel standard. Later, the United States also abandoned the 24-way standard, and it turned out that Wu Hequan's suggestion made the development of the mainland's digital communication industry less detours. Later, he was responsible for the overall design and development of the first batch of PCM30 road products in China, which won the 1978 National Science Conference Award.

In 1988, Wu Hequan keenly grasped the changes in the international digital communication system, and once again stepped forward and suggested to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications that the quasi-synchronous digital series (PDH), which was widely used at that time, be transferred to the synchronous digital series (SDH) standard. He also took the lead in the research and development of STM-1/STM-4 multiplexing equipment, pushed the SDH system to practical use, and built a demonstration project of domestic SDH equipment optical fiber communication on the overhead optical cable line from Chengdu to Panzhihua, which further improved the level of communication technology in the mainland. This research won the first prize of the Science and Technology Progress Award of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications in 1997 and the second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award in 1998.

"Information technology and the market are changing every day, we must adjust quickly, the key is to recognize the direction, adapt to the environment, and strive to change from passive to proactive. If you do a good job, you will be able to shorten the gap with foreign countries. Wu Hequan said.

Plan the layout and break out of a Chinese road

Since 1993, Wu Hequan has been at the helm of three consecutive national "863" program communication technology themes, China's next-generation Internet demonstration project, "new generation broadband wireless mobile communication network" national science and technology major projects and other major national communication research projects, planning for the development of the national communications industry.

"These projects often invest billions or tens of billions of yuan, can the investment produce the expected results? Can it bring good prospects for the development of the national communications industry? There is no room for error in every decision-making judgment. Wu Hequan is well aware of the great responsibility.

Wu Hequan's eyes are like torches, carefully studying and judging the development trend at home and abroad, and boldly arranged.

In the 90s of the 20th century, China was fully connected to the Internet. In 1997, the International Telecommunication Union solicited 3G international standard technical solutions from all over the world, and Wu Hequan, then vice president and chief engineer of the Institute of Telecommunications Science and Technology (the predecessor of Datang Telecom), firmly supported the international standard for wireless communication proposed by the Institute.

At that time, China's communications industry was full of chips, terminals, antennas, base stations, and software, and the ideas of Wu Hequan and others were considered by many to be whimsical. But he insisted that China has developed 1G terminals, 2G switches and SCDMA wireless access systems, which have potential. In the end, the TD-SCDMA standard led by Datang Telecom not only achieved a breakthrough in the field of international standards for wireless communication in China, but also promoted the industrialization and marketization of Chinese standards, leading the joint innovation of the entire industry chain.

"In the past, when we could buy foreign products, we lost the motivation to do it ourselves. At that time, foreign telecom equipment suppliers were waiting to see the jokes of TD-SCDMA, which forced us to start from the whole industry chain, giving us an opportunity to build the whole industry chain from 'zero'. Wu Hequan said.

Since 2006, Wu Hequan has served as the chief engineer of the "New Generation of Broadband Wireless Mobile Communication Network" National Science and Technology Major Project, and organized the research and development of 3G, 4G and 5G projects (hereinafter referred to as the "03 Project"). The goal of the project is to enable China to achieve breakthroughs in both chips and patents in wireless technology and industry by 2020; Expand the domestic and foreign markets, support the industrial chain, innovation chain and network applications; It has become one of the world's leading forces in the formulation of international standards for wireless mobile communications.

These goals were difficult to achieve, and at the time it seemed unlikely to even be achieved. However, with the efforts of Wu Hequan and other experts, after 15 years of research and development, the "03 Special" goal has been fully exceeded.

"For example, the core patents (international standard essential patents) index we initially proposed should be increased from 1% to 10% of the industry at the beginning, and it actually reached 34%; The terminal chip index should be increased from 5% to 20%, which has actually reached 40%; The share of domestic equipment in the global market should increase from 5% to 20%, and it has actually reached 70%; The share of domestic equipment should be increased from 20% to 50%, and in fact it has reached 90%. "Wu Hequan is like a treasure.

Talking about the experience behind it, Wu Hequan said that the most important thing is to propose a new set of acceptance methods from the downstream to the upstream, rather than "go to the laboratory to see, test and pass". "For example, the inspection chip of the terminal, the inspection terminal of the base station, and the inspection base station of the network. The downstream company said that it would be used if it was qualified, otherwise the unit that made the upstream product would be unqualified. He said.

This closed-loop inspection method has enabled the mainland to form a relatively complete mobile communication industry chain, realizing the transformation of 3G follow-up, 4G parallel running, and 5G leading, and becoming one of the leading countries in the world in mobile communication technology.

But Wu Hequan did not take credit. He said: "I just grasp the right strategic direction, to guide everyone's enthusiasm to a right direction, the success of China's communication technology and industry is inseparable from the joint efforts and feelings of industry enterprises, research institutions, operators, everyone is trying to support independent innovation." ”

There are many more similar things. At the beginning of the 21st century, 10 years after China's full-featured access to the Internet, it faced a serious shortage of IPv4 addresses. Wu Hequan, who has been the director of the Expert Committee of China's Next Generation Internet Demonstration Project since 2003, proposed to actively develop IPv6 and organize technology and product development and network trials. To this day, he is still the director of the Expert Committee on Promoting the Large-scale Deployment and Application of IPv6, leading domestic enterprises to become the leading force in the global IPv6+ development.

Never get tired of it, the old man is willing to dedicate the remaining heat

Today, Wu Hequan, a "post-80s" generation, has become a senior academician and has no hard scientific research management tasks, but he is still doing his best to participate in the think tank consultation of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the project evaluation of national ministries and commissions, the scientific research and development direction of the State Key Laboratory, and the service and popularization of science for the industry.

In his spare time, he is still happy to keep an eye on the forefront of information technology development.

"Today, China's communication technology has developed to a new stage, the number of users is close to saturation, the number of wired telephone users is declining, the number of mobile communication terminals exceeds the number of people, and the average daily Internet access time per person in the country is as long as 4 hours, close to the 'ceiling'." Wu Hequan said that in the future, the development of China's communications cannot be completely driven by quantity, and must have more valuable connotations, such as combining with artificial intelligence, penetrating into more physical industries, and allowing consumers to get a better experience through communication, so as to develop better.

At the same time, he said that the next step in mobile communication is 6G, which will be an important part of international competition. At present, there is still a gap between China and the most cutting-edge international technologies in key technologies such as chips. In the face of foreign suppression, we must not leave any illusions, and only by relying on our own strength can we win the respect of the international community and pass the test of headwinds.

"The new era is full of challenges and opportunities. Now is the time for young scientists and technologists to get involved. Wu Hequan said.

On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, General Secretary Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter. In this regard, Wu Hequan said that the Chinese Academy of Engineering is the highest honorary and consultative academic institution in China's engineering science and technology circles, and to do a good job in consulting work, it is necessary to put forward decision-making suggestions with strategic thinking and a global vision, so as to withstand the historical test of the evolution of the international situation and technological development.

In the future, it is necessary to improve the participation of social science experts, contact enterprises more deeply, strengthen cooperation with other high-end think tanks in the country, adhere to integrity and innovation, strengthen forward-looking, targeted and reserve strategic research, and achieve greater achievements worthy of the times in the construction of a new type of national high-end think tank." Wu Hequan said.