Rebirth: Starting from Lighting Up the Tech Tree

Chapter 54 Submitting the Paper

On May 2nd, twelve days ahead of schedule, 402 completed all the architecture design and prototype verification for the first batch of the second phase of Sky Dome.

The four core modules—the multi-satellite pipeline scheduler, the adaptive parameter sharing engine, the beam coordination controller, and the spectrum sensing front-end—all passed the full-link simulation test of 120 satellite signals. Fang Ze's test report was 87 pages long, with corresponding simulation data and waveform screenshots for each indicator.

Zuo Cheng checked the 87 pages twice from beginning to end before submitting the report. It wasn't that he didn't trust Fang Ze, but rather it was his habit—he had to personally pass the final test on anything he handed over.

On the morning of May 4th, Lu Mingyuan led the technical review team to conduct the acceptance review of the architecture design phase.

This review was more formal than the mid-term review—the review team consisted of five people, who went through each module one by one and checked each indicator one by one. The review lasted from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., with only a 20-minute break in between to eat boxed lunches.

Zuo Cheng and Tang Xu took turns explaining the technical solutions, Fang Ze was responsible for demonstrating the simulation system on-site, and Chen Hao was there to retrieve raw data and answer technical questions. The four worked together seamlessly—who should say what and when had been meticulously planned in countless internal reviews.

The review panel's evaluation of the four modules:

Multi-Star Pipeline Scheduler – "The architecture is well-designed, horizontal scalability has been verified by simulation, and the resource isolation mechanism between pipelines is ingeniously designed. Passed."

The adaptive parameter sharing engine—"The lock-free circular buffer scheme performs stably in high-concurrency scenarios, and the version number mechanism provides sufficient consistency assurance. Approved."

The beam coordination controller—"The layered accuracy scheme is the biggest technical highlight of this review. It achieves near-optimal beam switching performance under computing power constraints, and a patent application is recommended. Approved."

The spectrum sensing front-end—"The embedded cyclic stationary detection solution achieved its design specifications in both real-time performance and accuracy. Fixed-point optimization and DMA pipeline design demonstrate strong embedded engineering capabilities. Passed."

All four modules passed on the first try.

Lu Mingyuan signed the review report, then closed the folder and looked at Zuo Cheng.

"You completed a 90-day task in 78 days. That's almost two weeks ahead of schedule." His tone wasn't exaggerated praise, but rather genuine recognition. "I'll report the review results to the technical committee. Next is a six-month engineering development period, with the first milestone in August—the engineering prototype of the multi-star parallel processing engine needs to be running."

"Understood," Zuo Cheng said.

"There's one more thing." Lu Mingyuan paused as he stood up to leave. "President Zhou asked me to tell you that he's reviewed the preliminary research plan for distributed collaborative spectrum sensing and is very interested. He hopes that this direction can be used for exploratory verification in the second phase of engineering development—not as a formal delivery indicator, but if it yields results, it will be a separate project in the third phase."

The third phase.

Zuo Cheng's heart skipped a beat. While the second phase of the Sky Dome project was still in its initial stages, Zhou Henian was already laying the groundwork for the third phase. Moreover, he had entrusted the exploration of distributed collaborative sensing to 402.

"I'll make the arrangements," Zuo Cheng said.

After the review panel left, the office was quiet for about five seconds.

Then Zhang Lei was the first to applaud.

The applause wasn't loud, but it rang out one after another. The applause from Liu Wei, Chen Hao, Fang Ze, Han Lu, the four newcomers, and Tang Xu—ten people in total—echoed for over ten seconds in the fifty-square-meter office. No one spoke; the applause itself was a testament to everyone's seventy-eight days together.

Tang Xu walked over and patted Zuo Cheng on the shoulder: "Chengzi, I suggest applying for a patent for beamforming; you know how valuable that is. Blue Bay Communications' review panel rarely proactively suggests patent applications from partners—they usually only recommend it to their own internal teams."

"Han Lu will follow up on the patent matter later," Zuo Cheng said.

Han Lu had already started taking notes in her notebook.

Zuo Cheng stood in front of the whiteboard, looking at the task cards that were all marked "complete". Red checkmarks covered each card, like a row of neat medals.

He picked up a pen and wrote a new line of words at the bottom of the whiteboard—

"Project development period: six months. First milestone: August. Goal: To bring the architecture to life on paper."

That evening, the system's light screen lit up.

【Main Quest Chain - Deep Dive into the Sky - Part Two: Complete the Design of a Multi-Star Parallel Signal Processing Architecture✓】

[Rating: Excellent (Passed all four modules on the first attempt, 12 days ahead of schedule)]

[Reward: 20 points, unlock the "Multi-Star Collaborative Processing" blade]

[Main Quest Chain - Sky Dome Deep Dive - Stage 3 Unlocked: Complete the Sky Dome Phase 2 Project Prototype Development and Integration (180 days)]

Current points: 148

Current number of blades: 14 (including 1 fusion-class)

One hundred and forty-eight points. Fourteen leaves.

The new "multi-satellite collaborative processing" technology occupies a special position on the technology tree—it is not an extension of the "communications engineering" branch, but rather hangs on an independent node, belonging to a new branch that has not yet been activated: aerospace communications.

Zuo Cheng stared at the four characters "Aerospace Communications" for a long time.

Communication engineering is the first branch. The Internet of Things is just one leaf away from activating the second branch. Now, the field of aerospace communication is also starting to accumulate leaves.

The direction of technological development is becoming increasingly clear—from terrestrial communications to the Internet of Things (IoT), and from IoT to aerospace communications, each step is naturally extending upwards.

He turned off the light screen, picked up his phone, and sent a message to Yu Ying.

"Kongkong, the architecture has passed acceptance. All four modules passed on the first try."

Yu Ying replied instantly: "Congratulations, bro!"

Then he sent another message: "By the way, Professor Li asked me to ask you if you have time to co-author that paper on cyclic stationary spectral sensing? He means that the 402 team will provide the engineering data, the research group will provide the theoretical analysis, and it will be published jointly. You'll be the first author."

First author.

Zuo Cheng thought for a moment. His doctoral dissertation in engineering focused on "intelligent signal processing for ground terminals in low-orbit satellite communication," and the content of this paper closely matched his research direction. If it were published in a top journal in the field of communications, it would be a strong support for his doctoral dissertation.

"I'm interested. But the project has just started development, so I might not have time to write it until after the first milestone in August."

"It's alright, Professor Li said there's no rush. Good research results are worth waiting for."

Zuo Cheng put down his phone and stood by the window for a while, gazing at the night view.

May is already quite warm. The plane trees outside the window are covered with new leaves, and the evening breeze carries the scent of early summer. The streetlights cast patches of golden light through the gaps in the tree canopy.

One hundred and forty-eight points. Fourteen leaves. One branch, accumulating in two directions.

402 went from four people to eleven, from one dormitory to two offices, from 980,000 to 3.8 million.

It's been less than two years.

But he knew the real battle was just beginning. Architectural design is like drawing blueprints; engineering development is like building a house. No matter how beautiful the blueprints are, if the house can't be built, it's just a piece of waste paper.

Six months. One hundred and eighty days. Another tough battle.

He turned around and went back to his workstation, turned on his computer, and began writing a detailed schedule for the project development period.