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NearLink (Chinese: 星闪; also known as SparkLink and formerly Greentooth) is a short-range wireless technology protocol, which was developed by the NearLink Alliance, led by Huawei to set up on September 22, 2020.[1][2] As of September 2023, the Alliance has more than 300 enterprises and institutions on board, which include automotive manufacturers, chip and module manufacturers, application developers, ICT companies, and research institutions.[3][4]
 NearLink logo | |
| Developed by | NearLink Alliance |
|---|---|
| Introduced | 4 November 2022 |
| Industry | Personal area networks |
| Compatible hardware | Smartphones Personal computers Audio devices Embedded devices Internet of things Internet of vehicles |
| Website | http://www.sparklink.org.cn/ |
On November 4, 2022, the Alliance released the SparkLink Short-range Wireless Communications Standard 1.0, which incorporates two modes of access, namely, SparkLink Low Energy (SLE) and SparkLink Basic (SLB),[5][6] to integrate the features of traditional wireless technologies, such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, with enhanced prerequisites for latency, power consumption, coverage, and security.[7][4][8]
The Alliance unveiled the Standard 2.0 on March 30, 2024, which enhances end-to-end protocol system and extends application standards, supporting native audio and video capabilities, human-computer interaction, and positioning applications.[9]
NearLink employs the Cyclic Prefix-Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (Cyclic Prefix-OFDM) waveform to address latency issues in various applications. The waveform features an ultra-short frame structure and a flexible scheduling scheme of time-domain resources, reducing transmission latency to approximately 20 microseconds. In addition, NearLink applies polar codes and adopts Hybrid Automatic Repeat-reQuest (HARQ) schemes to support applications with high reliability requirements, such as industrial closed-loop control applications for automated assembly lines, where reliability requirements are at least 99.999%.[1]
The first product to feature NearLink technology was the Huawei Mate 60 series smartphone introduced by Huawei on August 29, 2023,[10][11] followed by FreeBuds Pro 3 on November 25, 2023, M-Pencil 3rd gen with the MatePad 13.2 tablet on 14 December 2023,[12][13] and the Pura 70 series on April 18, 2024.[14][15]
On September 22, 2020, the SparkLight Alliance was established to formulate the NearLink short-range wireless technology standard.[16]
By the end of 2021, the NearLink 1.0 standards were finalized, establishing a core end-to-end architecture that includes the NearLink access layer, basic service layer, and basic application layer.[17]
On November 4, 2022, the SparkLink Alliance officially released the SparkLink Short-range Wireless Communications Standard 1.0 , which covers two modes of access: SLB (SparkLink Basic) and SLE (SparkLink Low Energy). They also unveiled "The White Paper for Promotion of SparkLink Short-Range Wireless Communication (SparkLink 1.0) for Industrial Use."[18][19]
On August 4, 2023, Huawei officially unveiled the NearLink short-range wireless communication technology at the Developer Conference, providing a new wireless communication method for HarmonyOS.[20][21]
On August 29, 2023, Huawei released the Huawei Mate 60 series smartphones, which are equipped with NearLink technology.[10]
On September 25, 2023, at Huawei's Autumn Full-Scenario New Products Launch event, a new range of products supporting NearLink technology were unveiled. These products include the Huawei MatePad Pro 13.2-inch tablet, the third-generation M-Pencil stylus, and the FreeBuds Pro 3 earbuds.[22][23][24]
On March 30, 2024, the Intelligent Car Connectivity Industry Ecosystem Alliance ("ICCE Alliance") and the NearLink Alliance jointly released the ICCE Alliance Digital Key System Part 6: NearLink System Requirements during the 2024 International NearLink Alliance Industry Summit". The Requirements were formulated by various parties including Huawei, BYD, Changan, GAC, FAW, etc.[25]
On November 12, 2024, Huawei released a beta version of HarmonyOS 5.0.1 targeted for developers that has full support of native NearLink Kit API integration of the operating system for third party applications support.[26]
The system structure of NearLink technology mainly consists of three layers: the physical layer, the data link layer, and the network layer.[27][28]
- Physical Layer: the core layer of NearLink technology, primarily responsible for the transmission and reception of high-frequency signals. The physical layer uses GFSK modulation and PSK modulation of different orders. In addition the physical layer has forward error correction (FEC) based on Polar codes.
- Data Link Layer: primarily responsible for packaging and unpacking data, as well as data validation and error correction.
- Network Layer: mainly responsible for data routing and forwarding, ensuring that data is correctly transmitted to its intended destination.
NearLink incorporates two access modes, namely SparkLink Low Energy ("SLE")[Note 1] and SparkLink Basic ("SLB").[Note 2][5][6]
- The SLE mode is mainly aimed at low-power, low-latency, and high-reliability application scenarios, such as wireless headsets, mice, car keys, etc. It reportedly offers a data transmission rate of up to 12 Mbit/s, or six times that of Bluetooth, and supports bidirectional latency of 250 microseconds, simultaneous access by 256 users, and a power consumption of less than 2mA.
- The SLB mode focuses on high-speed, high-capacity, and high-precision application scenarios, such as video transmission, large file sharing, and precise positioning. It reportedly provides a data transmission rate of up to 1.2 Gbit/s, or twice that of Wi-Fi, and supports latency of 20 microseconds and simultaneous access by 4096 users.
| NearLink Module H383U[29] | NearLink Module H383S[30] |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | |
| 12.00mm X 12.00mm X 2.2mm | 12.20mm X 13.00mm X 1.8mm |
| Protocols | |
| Supports 802.11b/g/n/ax, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), NearLink, USB communication interface, coexistence of WiFi and BLE, as well as coexistence of WiFi and NearLink. | Supports 802.11b/g/n/ax, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), NearLink, SDIO communication interface, coexistence of WiFi and BLE, as well as coexistence of WiFi and NearLink. |
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