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Previous page... Stratospheric Broadband Communication
Technology
The communications payload of the HALO aircraft will be at the apex of a wireless super-metropolitan area network. It will serve as the hub of a "star topology" network to route data packets between any two users via a single hop through the payload. The links will be wireless, broadband and line-of-sight. Subscribers will be able to access service on demand and will exchange video, high-resolution images, and large data files. Information addressed to non-subscribers or to recipients beyond the region served by the HALO Network will be routed through a dedicated Gateway connected to the public switched networks, or via business premise equipment owned and operated by service providers connected to the public networks.
By utilizing licensed terrestrial spectrum, adapting and integrating millimeter wave radio technologies, packet switches, broadband data networking components, and by exploiting the geometric advantages offered by a "very tall tower," the HALO Network will be able to provide data rates in the multi-megabit per second range to its subscribers. The network will have an initial transactional capacity greater than 16 Gigabits per second. The network will utilize a frequency re-use pattern to cover the service area with hundreds of contiguous virtual cells, each comparable to a terrestrial tower offering broadband service at millimeter-wave frequencies. The network can complement satellite systems by transmitting local or regional content. In addition, the central node of the network, the airborne hub, can be routinely serviced for optimal performance, and be steadily enhanced with emerging technologies.
The real beauty of this stratospheric communication network lies in accessing and transmitting data created outside the service area. Such information will be delivered to the subscriber's consumer premise equipment (CPE) through business premise equipment operated by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) or content providers within that region, and through the HALO gateway directly connected to distant metropolitan areas. The gateway will avail system-wide access to content providers and it will allow subscribers to extend their communications beyond the network service area by connecting them to dedicated long-distance lines such as inter-metro optical fiber.
The CPE and the gateway will have functions in common. They will use a high-gain antenna that automatically tracks the HALO aircraft; extract modulated signals conveyed through the air by millimeter waves; convert the extracted signals to digital data; provide standards-based data communications interfaces; and route the digital data to information appliances, personal computers, workstations and servers connected to the premise equipment. Thus, some of the technologies and components, both hardware and software, will be common to the designs of these basic network elements.
Contd..... Operations.
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