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UK Testing Wireless Broadband Via Airship
fruey writes "A team from York University, UK are about to test high altitude platforms, according to this article, as a way of bringing high-speed internet services to computer users in remote areas out of reach of broadband. They plan to use solar powered engines to keep the aerial platforms in position. The Capanina site have some more information about this stratospheric broadband experiment. More technical stuff can be found at the York University website
This technology could deliver broadband communications at data rates up to 120Mbit/s! Screw cable and xDSL, when will stratospheric be available near me?"
Satellites always had terrible lag times for transmission, so this would be much better...but c'mon, the British weather sucks--how long before these little "microlight" planes get knocked out of the sky by wind, attacked by birds, or grounded due to foul weather? Just put money into running coax/POTS or long-distance 802.11-type service.
It would be called the Sun phone. What they'd do is launch a big balloon and have it hover over your large metropolitan areas. The phone gives you seemless voice capabiities, and then you plug it into your computer and you've got hi-speed access. And then the really cool feature... the thing lights up, just like the real Sun (only this Sun would be visible at night.)
Yeah, it's just a marketing gimmick I guess, but it seemed like such a good fit. And besides, what else is Sun going to do? Manufacture over-priced blade servers?
Is this truly the only Earth I can live on?
I can only hope DWO will be supported. Unfortunate for this otherwise solid choice otherwise, but it could become the breaking point.
In the end the only other alternative is to create my own. A real possibility in that I can stand by my decision - win or lose.
Nasa's project Helios (the unmanned solar-powered "flying wing") has had a similar Idea behind it:
Why clutter geostationary orbit when you can have unmanned planes circling metropolitian areas? Using solar power, these flying relays could operate nearly indefinitely at a fraction of the price.
The biggest problem that remains: What to do at night, when there is no sun powering the Solar Cells? Helios used Fuel Cells for backup power, but the technology is not yet advanced enough to sustain flight for longer than ~1 week.
I wonder how the latency and ping time would be.
Having used Hughes' DirecDuo / DirecPC 4 years ago before broadband was available at my home, it left the broadband experience wanting.
It was ok for downloading large files, couldn't do online gaming at all, and surfing the web was just ok - you could feel the few seconds where you sent the URL over, but once it got it sent the browser downloaded it quickly enough.
I guess it would depend how their NOC worked - but I still have to imagine this is only good for the same things as DirecPC (which means gaming is still out probably).
services from Astra and Eutelsat and others already cover every bit of land from Iceland to Pakistan... at small prices. Try www.eutelsat.net to get some really low prices!! Just a dish, dvb modem, et voila'! Great stuff!
Sure its fast, but if its stratospheric, its usefulness may be greatly effected by inclimate weather. Even cumulus clouds can greatly lower the bandwidth of wireless communication when transmitting between the stratosphere and the ground. It will be interesting to see how they deal with this issue.
This speed figure seemed to be just thrown out of a hat, with nothing to back it up. (It's also referenced on this CAPANINA project page, but again no more details.
These are going to be 10 miles up, it's only the experiments that are with tethered airships. The tests will be followed by slightly different style aircraft which will be less affected by weather systems significantly below them. Birds don't fly to those sorts of altitudes either.
Serviceable area will be less than for geostationary orbit satellites, but lower power and higher speeds are possible. The telecoms requirements of this century will probably require a lot of deployment of new stuff, because there's only so much sense in deploying fibre optics all over the place, because the remote areas will get left out.
Conversion Rate Optimisation French / English consultant
This is just great. Now we have to wait for two emerging technologies to mature: wireless broadband AND autonomous blimps. Not to mention the integration and ground control thereof. It's not like they're not having a hard enough time deploying wireless broadband from the top of a steel pole on a hill--pretty reliable and established mounting technology in most parts of the world--now they have to do it from a floating platform that has been pie-in-the-sky (pardon the pun) for decades. Yeah, it will happen Really Soon Now!
there's this company named skylinc whose name I keep seeing pop up... they call their platform "Low-Cost Integrated Broadband Radio Access (LIBRA)." it's basically the same thing... a few aerostat baloons a few km up drag a fiber-optic teather up with them... they then have the capability of covering 5000 square kilometers with approx 2Mb per person at 15,000 people.
From their FAQ:
When will the system be available?
SkyLINC will launch the first LIBRA communications platform within the next 12 months. The first users of this system will be online during the second quarter of 2004.
Where will these systems be made available?
SkyLINC have a number of different opportunities available for the deployment of the first system. The business case and requirements for each location are being assessed and an announcement will be made in the near future. SkyLINC remain open to additional deployment opportunities and seek strategic investment/partnership to launch anywhere in the world.
Is the system affected by weather?
SkyLINC use a specially engineered aerostat, designed to remain in the sky for long periods of time, whilst withstanding strong wind and adverse weather conditions. However, it is expected that the aerostat would need to be grounded during a extreme conditions such as a tornado. Weather systems are monitored to ensure that the aerostat is protected.
Can the link be made secure?
Yes. By using Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology, any wireless network can be made secure for the transfer of confidential information. See the link for an explanation as to how a VPN operates.
Do I need to be able to see the Aerostat?
By using remote site distribution SkyLINC will ensure ubiquitous connectivity within the 40km foot print. Therefore line of sight to the aerostat is not necessary.
How does LIBRA interact with aviation users?
LIBRA will be deployed within an Air Traffic Zone(ATZ), sometime called no-fly zones, which is controlled by the Aviation authority. An ATZ appears on aero-nautical charts used by pilots and air traffic controllers.
What is contention?
In the case of some communication systems, multiple users connect on to a data pipe and hence, share bandwidth. This is known as Contention. Unfortunately, if all users decide to connect at the same time then the end user connection speed drops considerably. The acceptability of this 'drop' in bandwidth depends on the application of the link. Needless to say, during a video conference, a drop in bandwidth would result in loss of images. Hence, for some applications an uncontended link is essential.
What is a symmetrical link?
To communicate we need to transmit and receive data. The amount we can transmit and receive depends on the bandwidth for the up-link and down-link respectively. A symmetric service has the same bandwidth to receive and transmit! This is essential for some applications, such as video conferencing.
Jeremy Logan's Website.