High Altitude Aeronautical Platforms-HAAPS- Seminar Report

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INTRODUCTION HIGH ALTITUDE AERONAUTICAL PLATFORMS (HAAPS)

High Altitude Aeronautical Platform Stations (HAAPS) is the name of a technology

for

providing

wireless

narrowband

and

broadband

teleco telecommu mmunic nicatio ation n servic services es as well as broadc broadcasti asting ng servic services es with either either airships or aircrafts. The HAAPS are operating at altitudes between 3 to 22 km. A HAAPS shall be able to cover a service area of up to 1'000 km diameter, depending on the minimum elevation angle accepted from the user's location. The platforms may be airplanes or airships (essentially balloons) and may may be manne manned d or un-ma un-mann nned ed with with auton autonom omous ous oper operat atio ion n coupl coupled ed with with remo remote te cont contro roll from from the the grou ground nd.. HAAP HAAPS S mean mean a sola solarr-po powe were red d and and unmanned airplane or airship, capable of long endurance on-station –possibly several years.

A high high altit altitude ude tele teleco comm mmuni unica cati tion on syste system m comp compri rise sess an airb airbor orne ne platform – typically at high atmospheric or stratospheric altitudes – with a telecommunications

payload,

and

associated

ground

station

tele teleco comm mmun unic icati ation onss equip equipme ment. nt. The comb combin inat atio ion n of altit altitud ude, e, paylo payload ad capabil capability, ity, and power power supply supply capabil capability ity makes it ideal ideal to serve serve new and metr metropo opolit litan an area areass with with adva advanc nced ed telec telecom ommu munic nicat ation ionss servi service cess such such as broadband

access

and

regional

broadcasting.

The

opportunities

for

applications applications are virtually virtually unlimited. unlimited. The possibilities range from narrowband narrowband services such as paging and mobile voice to interactive broadband services such as multimedia and video conferencing. For future telecommunications operators such a platform could provide blanket coverage from day one with

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the added advantage of not being limited to a single service. Where little or unreliable infrastructure exists, traffic could be switched through air via the HAAPS platform. Technically, the concept offers a solution to the propagation and and roll rollout out probl problem emss of terr terrest estri rial al infra infrastr struc uctur turee and and capa capaci city ty and and cost cost problems of satellite networks. Recent developments in digital array antenna techn technol ology ogy make make it possi possible ble to cons constr truc uctt 100+ 100+ cells cells from from one one plat platfo form rm.. Linking and switching of traffic between multiple high altitude platforms, satellite networks and terrestrial gateways are also possible. Economically it provides the opportunity for developing countries to have satellite-like infrastructure without the funds flowing out of the country due to gateways and control stations located outside of these countries.

GENERAL ARCHITECTURE A typical HAAP-based communications systems structure is shown .

HAAP

Feeder-band beam

Ground Station

User-band Beam

Public/Private networks

Coverage Area The platform is positioned above the coverage area. There are basically two types of HAAPS. Lighter-than air HAAPS are kept stationary, while

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airplane-based HAAPS are flown in a tight circle. For broadcast applications, a simple antenna beams signals to terminals on the ground. For individualized communication, such as telephony, "cells" are created on the ground by some beam forming technique in order to reuse channels for spatially separated users, as is done in cellular service. Beam forming can be as sophisticated as the the use use of phas phased ed-a -arr rray ay ante antenn nnas as,, or as stra straig ight htfo forw rwar ard d as the the use use of lightweight, possible inflatable parabolic dishes with mechanical steering. In the case of a moving HAAP it would also be necessary to compensate motion by electronic or mechanical means in order to keep the cells stationary or to "hand off" connections between cells as is done in cellular telephony.

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HALO NETWORK CONCEPTS layer in High-Altitude High-Altitude Long Operation (HALO) aircraft present a new layer in the hiera hierarc rchy hy of wire wirele less ss comm communi unica cati tions ons -- a 10-mi 10-mile le tall tall tower tower in the the stratosphere above rain showers and below meteor showers (i.e., high above terrestrial towers and well below satellite constellations).

HALO airp airpla lane ne will will be the the cent centra rall node node of a wirel wireles esss broa broadba dband nd

communications network. The HALO Network, whose initial in itial capacity will be on the scale of 10 Gbps, with a growth potential beyond 100 Gbps. The packet-switched network will be designed design ed to offer bit rates to each subscriber in the multimegabit-per-second range.

The airplane's fuselage can house switching circuitry and fast digital network functions. A MMW antenna array and its related components will be

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located in a pod suspended below the aircraft fuselage. The antenna array will produce many beams -- typically, more than 100. Broadband channels to subscribers in adjacent beams will be separated in frequency. For the case of aircraft-fixed beams, the beams will traverse over a user location, while the airplane maintains stationary overhead, and the virtual path will be changed to accomplish the beam-to-beam handoff. The aircraft will fly above commercial airline traffic, at altitudes higher than 51,000 feet. For each city to be served, a fleet of three aircraft will be operated in shifts to achieve around-the-clock service. Flight operational tactics will be steadily evolved to achieve high availability of the node in the stratosphere.

Operation (HALO) Network is a broadband The High Altitude Long Operation

wirele wireless ss metrop metropolit olitan an area area network network (MAN) (MAN) consist consisting ing of HALO HALO aircra aircraft ft operating at high altitude and carrying an airborne communications network hub and network elements on the ground.

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The HALO Network combines the advantages of two well-established wireless communication services: satellite networks and terrestrial wireless netwo network rkss like like cellu cellula larr and and pers persona onall comm commun unica icatio tion n syste systems ms.. Sate Satelli llite te networks was deployed at low earth orbit (LEO), medium earth orbit (MEO), high elliptic elliptic orbit orbit (HEO), (HEO), and geosync geosynchro hronous nous earth orbit orbit (GEO) (GEO) . Their Their disadvantages include expensive high-power user terminals, long propagation delays. Also, system capacity will be practically fixed and can be increased incre increme ment ntal ally ly only only by addi adding ng sate satelli llite tes. s. In cont contra rast st,, terr terrest estri rial al wire wirele less ss networks have advantages such as low-cost, low-power user terminals, short propagation delays, and good scalability of system capacity. However, their disadva disadvanta ntages ges include include low look angles angles and complex complex infrastr infrastructu uctures res.. They They require many base stations that must be interlinked over cables or microwave links. They often require significant reengineering to increase capacity when using cell-splitting techniques.

The HALO network network will be located in the atmosphere, atmosphere, at an altitude of 15 miles above terrestrial terrestrial wireless, wireless, but hundreds hundreds to thousands of miles below satellite networks. It will provide broadband services to businesses and small offi office ces/h s/hom omee offi office cess in an area area cont contain ainin ing g a typic typical al larg largee city city and its its neighboring towns. To each end user it will offer an unobstructed line of sight and a free-space-like channel with short propagation delay, and it will allow the the use use of lowlow-po powe werr lowlow-co cost st user user term termin inal als. s. The The HALO network infr infras astr truc uctu ture re is simp simple le,, with with a sing single le cent centra rall hub. hub. Cons Conseq eque uent ntly ly,, the the deployment of service to the entire metropolitan area can occur on the first day the network is deployed; and the subsequent maintenance cost is expected to be low. l ow. The Th e system sy stem capacity can be increased by decreasing the size of o f beam spots on the ground while increasing the number of beams within the signal

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foot footpr print int,, or by incr increa easi sing ng the the signa signall band bandwid width th per per beam beam.. The The HALO network can interface to existing networks. It can operate as a backbone to connect physically separated LANs through frame relay adaptation or directly through LAN bridges and routers. The HALO Netw Networ ork k will will be able able to offe offerr wire wirele less ss broa broadb dban and d commu ommuni nica cati tion onss

serv servic ices es

to

a

"sup "super er

metr metrop opol olit itan an

are area," a,"

an

are area

encomp encompassi assing ng a typical typical large large city city and its surrou surroundin nding g commun communiti ities. es. The aircraft will carry the "hub" of the network from which we will serve tens to hundreds of thousands of subscribers on the ground. Each subscriber will be able to communicate at multi-megabit per second bit rates through a simpleto-install user terminal. The HALO Network will be evolved at a pace with the emergence globally of key technologies from the data communications, millimeter wave RF, and network equipment fields.

The HALO aircraft will be operated in shifts from regional airports. Whil Whilee on the the groun ground, d, the the netw networ ork k equip equipme ment nt aboa aboard rd the the airc aircra raft ft will will be asse assess ssed ed,, main maintai taine ned d and and upgra upgrade ded d on a routi routine ne basis basis to ensur ensuree optim optimal al performance. The HALO/Prote /Proteus us airpla airplane ne has been been specia specially lly designe designed d to carry the hub of the HALO Network. In the stratosphere, the airplane can carr carry y a weigh weightt of appr approx oxim imat atel ely y one one ton. ton. The The airp airpla lane ne is esse essenti ntial ally ly an equipment bus from which commercial wireless services will be offered. A fleet of three aircraft will be cycled in shifts to achieve continuous service. Each shift on station will have an average duration of approximately eight hours. The HALO/Proteus airplane will maintain station at an altitude above 51 Kft in a volume of airspace. The look angle, defined to be the angle subtended between the local horizon and the airplane with the user terminal at the vert vertex ex;; will will be grea greate terr than than a minim minimum um valu valuee of 20 degr degree ees. s. (The (The minimum look angle (MLA) for a given user terminal along the perimeter of

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the service footprint is defined to occur whenever the airplane achieves the longest longest slant slant range range from from that terminal terminal while while flying flying within within the design designate ated d airs airspa pace ce.) .) Under Under these these assum assumpt ption ions, s, the the Many Many type typess of orga organi niza zatio tions ns -schools, hospitals, doctors' offices, and small to medium-size businesses -around the world will benefit from the low pricing of broadband services provided by the HALO

Network. Network. Standard Standard broadband broadband protocols protocols such as

ATM ATM and and SONET SONET will will be adop adopte ted d to inter interfa face ce the HALO Networ Network k as seamlessly as possible. The gateway to the HALO Network will provide access to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) Network (PSTN) and to the Internet backbone for such services as the World Wide Web and electronic commerce. The gateway will provide to information content providers a network-wide access to a large population of subscribers

Desirable features

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Some desirable features of the HALO Network include the following: •

Seamless ubiquitous multimedia services

•

Adaptation to end-user environments

•

Rapidly deployable to sites of opportunity

•

Bandwidth on demand for efficient use of available spectrum

Signa ignall foot footpr prin intt will will cover over an area rea of appro pproxi xim matel ately y 2,00 2,000 0 to 3,00 3,000 0 squa square re mile miles, s, larg largee enou enough gh to enco encomp mpas asss a typi typica call city city and and its its neighboring communities. Such a high value for the MLA was chosen to ensure a line-of-sight connection to nearly every rooftop in the signal footprint and to ensure high availability during heavy rainfall.

By selecting MMW frequencies, a broadband network of high capacity can be realized. The airborne antenna array can be configured to project a pattern of many cells numbering from 100 to more than 1,000. Each cell on the ground will cover an area of a few square miles to several tens of square miles.

Service attributes Various classes of service can be provided to subscribers sharing the bandwidth of a given beam, for example, 1 to 10 Mbps peak data rates to small businesses, and 10 to 25 Mbps peak data rates to business users with larger bandwidth appetites. Because each link can be serviced according to "bandwidth on demand," the bandwidth available in a beam can be shared between sessions concurrently active within with in that beam. While the average data rate may be low for a given user, the instantaneous rate can be grown to a

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specified upper bound according to demand. A dedicated beam service can also be provided to those subscribers requiring 25-155 Mbps.

Network access

Various methods for providing access to the users on the ground are feasible. In one approach, each spot beam from the payload antenna serves a single "cell" on the ground in a frequency-division multiplex fashion with 5to-1 frequency reuse, four for subscriber units and the fifth for gateways to the public network and to high-rate subscribers.

HALO Network architecture

As the the HALO/Pro /Prote teus us airc aircra raft ft serv serves es as the the hub hub of the the wire wirele less ss broadband communications network. It carries the t he airborne network elements including an ATM switch, spot beam antennas, and multibeam antennas, as well as transmitting and receiving electronics. The antenna array provides cellular-like coverage of a large metropolitan area. A variety of spectrum allo alloca cati tions ons could could be utili utilize zed d by a HALO netwo network rk.. The The follo followin wing g two spectrum allocations as examples for creating a high-capacity HALO network offering wireless broadband services:

•

Local multimegabit data service (LMDS) at 28 GHz

•

The microwave point-to-point allocation at 38 GHz

The antenna array produces beams on the ground of two types:

•

The shared beam provides services to 100–1000 subscribers.

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•

The dedicated beam provides a connection to a gateway serving high bandwidth users, or to the network gateway through which a user from a nonnon-HALO netwo network rk can can acce access ss the serv servic ices es of, of, and and exch exchan ange ge information with, any end user of the HALO Network.

The HALO network utilizes multiple beams on the ground arranged in a typical cellular pattern. Each beam spot in the pattern functions as a single cell. Each cell covers more than several square miles of area. Adjacent cells have different frequency sub bands. The pattern has a periodic nature and each sub band in the set so chosen (i.e., each sub band of the frequency reuse plan) is used multiple times within the service area. Through frequency reuse, about 2800 mi2 of area can be covered. The total capacity achieved by only one platform can be in the range of 10–100 Gb/s. The cells created by the antenna array would be fixed on the ground, and there there would would be no overla overlappin pping g area area between between adjacent adjacent cells. cells. The cellula cellular r pattern would cover a metropolitan-scale area. The altitude of aircraft would be 16 km. It would have an orbit diameter of 14.8 km (ring 3 level). By assu assumi ming ng a cons consta tant nt grou ground nd spee speed, d, the the orbi orbitt woul would d have have a peri period od of approximately 6 min.

Each cell on the ground is covered by one spot beam. However, the spot beam that covers a particular cell changes due to the motion of the aircraft. A given beam covers a given cell on the ground for a duration of time called dwell time. time. Once the duration is exceeded, the beam must ratchet over by one or more beams to cover a new cell on the ground. The ratcheting action requires a burst modem in the user terminal and the use of electronically stabilized beams aboard the airplane.

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HALO aircraft

The HALO aircraft is being flight-tested in Mojave, California. The first flight was accomplished there in July 1998 and the flight envelope is being steadily expanded. The aircraft has been specially designed for the HALO Network and it can carry a large pod suspended from the underbelly of its fuselage. If encountering a persistent wind at altitude, the aircraft will vary its roll angle as it attempts to maintain its station. Various antenna concepts allow the signal footprint to be maintained on the ground as the airplane rolls.

Communications Pod

The HALO Network will use an array of narrow beam antennas on the aircraft to form multiple cells cells on the ground. Each cell covers a small HALO aircraft area, e.g., several to several tens of square miles. The wide bandwidths and narrow beam widths of each beam or cell are achieved by using MMW carrier frequencies. Small aperture antennas with high gains can be used at opposite ends of the subscriber link, corresponding to the user terminal and the airborne antenna.

Subscriber units (user terminals) The user terminal terminal entails three major sub-groups sub-groups of hardware: hardware: the radio freq freque uenc ncy y unit unit (RU) (RU),, whic which h cont contai ains ns the the MMW MMW Ante Antenn nnaa and and MMW MMW Transceiver, Transceiver, the Network Network Interface Interface Unit (NIU), (NIU), and the application application terminals such as PCs, telephones, telephones, video servers, video terminals, etc. The RU consists consists of a small dual-feed antenna and MMW transmitter and receiver mounted to the antenna. An antenna tracking unit uses a pilot tone transmitted from the HALO aircraft to point its antenna at the airplane.

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The MMW transmitter accepts an L-band intermediate frequency (IF) input signal from the network interface unit (NIU), translates it to MMW frequencies, frequencies, amplifies amplifies the signal using a power amplifier amplifier to a transmit-power transmit-power level of 100 - 500 mW, and feeds the antenna. The MMW receiver couples the received signal from the antenna to a Low Noise Amplifier (LNA), down converts the signal to an L-band IF, and provides subsequent amplification and processing before outputting the signal to the NIU. The MMW transceiver will process a single channel

at any one time, perhaps as narrow as 40 MHz.

The particular channel and frequency are determined by the NIU. The NIU interfaces to the RU which transmits the L-band TX and RX signals between the NIU and the RU. The NIU comprises an L-band tuner and down down conv conver erte ter; r; a high high-s -spe peed ed demo demodu dula lato tor; r; a high high-s -spe peed ed modu modula lato tor; r; multipl multiplexe exers rs and demult demultiple iplexer xers; s; and data, data, telepho telephony, ny, and video video interf interface ace electronics. Each user terminal can provide access to data at rates up to 51.84 Mbps each way. In some applications, some of this bandwidth may be used to inco incorp rpor orat atee spre spread ad spec spectr trum um codi coding ng to impr improv ovee perf perfor orma manc ncee agai agains nstt interference

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ONBOARD EQUIPMENT Depend Depending ing on the applic applicatio ation, n, HAAP-ba HAAP-based sed commun communica ication tionss system system coul could d be impl implem emen ente ted d in many many ways ways.. A typi typica call desi design gn will will seek seek high high reliability, low power consumption and minimum weight and size for the onboard portion of the system. That would lead to an architecture which places most of the system on the ground by limiting airborne components to a mult multic icha hann nnel el

tran transp spon onde der, r,

user user-b -bea eam m

and and

feed feeder er-b -bea eam m

ante antenn nnas as

and and

associated antenna interfaces.

10MHz LNA1

: LNA50 :

Beam

: BPF

BPF Frequencydivision mux

:

HP

BP

BPF :

D

: HPA1

forming matrix BPF

500 MHz

HPA50

10 MHz

Frequencydivision demux

LN

BP 500 MHz

Single- beam antenna(to ground station)

Multibeam antenna (to users)

The figure shows a code-division multiple access (CDMA) system built around around a standar standard d satell satelliteite-lik likee transpo transponde nderr bandwidt bandwidth h of 500 MHz. MHz. The transponder bandwidth can accommodate up to 50 antenna beams with 8 spread spread spectr spectrum um carrie carriers/ rs/bea beam m (assum (assuming ing 1.25 1.25 MHz bandwid bandwidth). th). Carrie Carrier r

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signals coming from a ground cell (i.e., from a particular beam)and received by the onboard antenna are first amplified in low-noise amplifiers(LNAs). They are then limited to the standard 10MHz bandwidth by band-pass filters (BPFs), and frequency division multiplexed. Before transmitting to the ground station, multiplexed signals are amplified in the high-power amplifier (HPA), BPFed to the transponder bandwidth and passed through the diplexer (D). Signal path in the opposite direction is similar and includes an additional demulitplexing stage. If commercial off-the-shelf equipment is to be used onboard, it will have to be placed in a chamber with climate and air-pressure control to prevent freezing, overheating due to reduced heat convection) and dielectric breakdown.

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GROUND INSTALLATIONS Communications between the HAAP and the ground would typically be concentrated into a single ground installation or perhaps into two locations for redundancy. There would be considerable advantage to collocating RF units, base stations and mobile switching centers (MSCs).

500 MHz . BPF

0

Frequen cydivision

LNA

D BPF

Frequen cydivision

LNA

500 MHZ

: Multicarri er CDMA base station

MSC

PSTN

Single-beam antenna(to airborne platform)

The ground system in figure corresponds to the onboard equipment from the previous figure. Carrier signals coming from the air-borne station are filtered by a BPF, amplified in LNAs, demultiplexed in the demux and passed to the CDMA base stations. In this case the base station consists only of a radio channel frame, since there is no need for power- amplifier and antennainterface frames for every base station; a common wide band power amplifier and an antenna will serve all the collocated base stations. From the base stations, the signals are passed in the usual manner to the mobile MSC and public switched telephone network (PSTN). The return signal path towards the

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airborne airborne station is similar similar except for the inverse multiplexing multiplexing operation in the MUX and high power amplification by HPA.

POWER SYSTEM & MISSON REQUIREMENTS Various Various power system components and mission requirements requirements affect the sizing of a solar powered long endurance aircraft. The aircraft power system consists of photovoltaic cells and a regenerative fuel cell. For the power system, the greatest benefit can be gained by increasing the fuel cell specific energy. Mission requirements also substantially affect the aircraft size. By limiting the time of year the aircraft is required to fly at high northern or southern latitudes a significant reduction in aircraft size or increase in payload capacity can be achieved.

Due to the high altitude at which these aircraft will be required to fly (20 km or higher) and the required endurance (from a few weeks to a year) the method of propulsion is the major design factor in the ability to construct the aircraft. One method of supplying power for this type of aircraft is to use solar photovoltaic (PV) cells coupled with a regenerative fuel cell. The main advantages to this method over others such as open cycle combustion engines or air breathing fuel cells is that it eliminates the need to carry fuel and to extract and compress air at altitude which can be a significant problem both in gathering the required volume of air and in rejecting the heat of compression. In order for a solar powered aircraft to be capable of continuous flight, enough energy energy must be collected and stored during the day to both power the aircraft and to enable the aircraft to fly throughout the night. The propulsion system consi consist stss of an elec electr tric ic moto motor, r, gear gear box and and prop propel elle ler. r. As the the effi effici cien ency cy

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increases, the corresponding reduction in aircraft size decreases. Fuel cell performance has a significant impact on size and performance of a solar powered aircraft. There are modest size reductions with increasing fuel cell efficiency; however, the size reductions which are gained by an increase in the specific energy of the fuel cell are substantial. Airc Aircra raft ft size size incr increa ease sess signif significa icantl ntly y with with incr increa easin sing g alti altitud tude. e. The The specified time of year (date) and latitude determines the charge/discharge period for the energy storage system as well as the amount of total solar energy energy availa available ble.. The winter solstice, solstice, December December 22, is the date with the longest discharge period and smallest amount of available solar energy. This date was chosen as the baseline because because it is the time of lowest daily average solar flux in the northern hemisphere and therefore represents a worst case situati situation. on. Any aircra aircraft ft power power system system and mission mission config configura uration tion which which is feas feasibl iblee at this this date date would would be capa capable ble of oper operat ating ing thro through ughout out the the year year.. However, by varying the required latitude throughout the year, aircraft size can be reduced.

Payload and payload power required also has an effect on the aircraft size. Mission requirements will mostly determine the amount and type of payload. In most situations lightweight, low power instruments, similar to satellite equipment, will need to be used.

If very light weight amorphous silicon arrays or any thin film array of simila similarr perfor performan mance ce can be mass mass produce produced, d, they they would would have signifi significan cantt advantages advantages over individual-cel individual-celled led rigid arrays. arrays. The main advantage advantage would be their incorporation onto the wings of the aircraft. Since they are flexible and can be made in large sheets they can conform to the shape of the wing. This allows for fairly easy installation directly over the wing surface. Also there

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would be no need to wire each individual cell together as is necessary with individu individual al rigid rigid cells. cells. In order order to make make the commer commercia ciall constr constructi uction on and maintenance maintenance of this type of aircraft practical, practical, light weight, weight, flexible PV arrays arrays will need to be used.

VARIOUS HAAPS PROJECTS HAPS have been proposed using both airship technology and high altitude aircraft.

Airship Technologies The idea is to keep unmanned Zeppelin-like balloons geostationary at an alti altitu tude de of 3 km to 22km 22km.E .Eac ach h HAPS HAPS shal shalll prov provid idee mobi mobile le and and fixe fixed d telecommunication services to an area of about 50 km to 1'000 km diameter, depending on the minimum elevation angle accepted from the user's location. To provide sufficient capacity in such large areas, spot beams have to be foreseen. One of the main challenges is to keep the platforms stationary. Winds of up to 55 m/s can occur at these altitudes.

1. Sky Station

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Sky Station is the name of an airship system planned by the US company “Sky Station Station Intern Internati ationa onal”. l”. The number number of platfor platforms ms will will depend depend on the demand (250 platforms are announced). The balloons will be covered with solar cells, giving energy to the electrical motors. The data rates foreseen for the fixed services are 2 Mbps for the uplink and 10 Mbps for the downlink. The data rates foreseen for the mobile services are 9.6 - 16 kbps for voice and 384 kbps for data.

2. StratSat Stra StratS tSat at is an airs airshi hip p syst system em plan planne ned d by the the UK base based d comp compan any y “Adva “Advanc nced ed Tech Techno nolog logy y Grou Group p (ATG (ATG)” )”.. With With both both civi civilia lian n and and milit militar ary y applications, the StratSat cost effective and safe solution for geo-stationary teleco telecommu mmunic nicatio ations ns payload payloadss above above large large custome customerr concent concentrat rations ions..

The

airship in the stratosphere is well above conventional air traffic and presents

no threat threat.. Its cheap cheap launch launch costs, costs, compar compared ed to the conven convention tional al satelli satellites tes allows those in the industry to talk of reducing the cost of calls from a mobile telephone, by an order of magnitude, thereby capturing a high proportion of the market..

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The solar array provides the sole source of renewable energy for the airship. The array is placed over the upper quarter of the hull and extends over approximately three-quarters of the length of the craft.

Aircraft Technologies

Although the commercial applications are only starting now to appear, the topic of communicati communication on using an aircraft is not new. Airplanes Airplanes have been used used to broa broadc dcas astt TV over over Viet Vietna nam m from from 1966 1966 to 1972. 1972. High High Altitu Altitude de Aircrafts will operate at an altitude of 16 km to 19 km, high above commercial airline traffic and adverse weather.

1. HALO-Proteus

Angel

Technology

Corporation

(USA)

offers

broadband

telecommunication service using manned aircraft. A piloted, FAA-certified High Altitude Long Operation (HALO) aircraft will provide the “hub” of the network. Operating continuously over each market in three eight hours shifts.

Consumers will be able to access video, data, and the Internet at rates ranging from 1 to 5 Mbps.The technologies of high altitude manned aircraft is mature. A broadband wireless link at 52 Mbps has been demonstrated in August 1998.

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2. Sky Tower

Through funding support from NASA, AeroVironment has developed an unmann unmanned, ed, solar-e solar-elec lectri tricc airpla airplane ne called called Helios Helios which which will be capable capable of conti ontinu nuou ouss flig flight ht for for up to six six month onthss or mor more at 60'0 60'000 00 feet feet in the the stratosphere, above the weather and commercial air traffic Helios will provide a telecommunications platform from this position in the stratosphere, acting as an 11-mile tall tower— hence the name “Sky Tower”..

Sky Tower’s stratospheric communications networks are comprised of airborne segments (or payloads) which communicate with user terminals and gateway gateway stations on the ground. The ground gateway stations stations will serve as an intermediate interface between the aircraft and existing Internet and PSTN connecting systems. When a signal passes from the end users up to the airplane and then from the airplane to the ground gateway antenna, a ground switching router will determine whether the data should be directed to the Internet, a private data network, or the telephone network. These interactive network systems are being designed to maximize the overall throughput of the netwo network rk.. Fixe Fixed d wirel wireles esss broad broadba band nd tota totall thro through ughpu putt is proje project cted ed to be approx approxima imatel tely y 10 to 20 Gbps Gbps per platform platform with typical typical user user transm transmissi ission on speeds of 1.5 Mbps or higher (125 Mbps is feasible for a single user).

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APPLICATIONS The large coverage area of a HAAP would tend to give it an advantage in two types of applications. One is where many widely separated customers receive the same communication as in entertainment broadcasting. HAAP technology might be able to achieve many of the benefits of the GEO-based Direct Broadcast Satellite without having to transmit quite so homogeneously over so large an area. Unlike GEO-based technology, upstream channels are also possible in HAAPs which would enable interactive TV and Internet access capabilities.

The other type of application in which a HAAP's large coverage area ought to be advantageous is in telecommunications for areas having a low densi density ty of custo custome mers rs,, espe especi ciall ally y when when pros prospe pect ctiv ivee custo custome mer' r'ss spec specif ific ic geographic locations are unknown. The cost per customer of installing fixed facilit facilities ies such such as wire wire increa increases ses with decrea decreasing sing custom customer er density density.. Even Even though cellular, PCS and wireless systems do not depend on traffic density, cost per subscriber rises when the traffic density gets so low that many under underut utili ilize zed d base base stati station onss have have to be insta install lled ed to achie achieve ve geogr geograph aphic ic covera coverage. ge. Here both satellites satellites and HAAPs HAAPs come come into play. Even Even though though satellites are more advantageous at times, HAAPs provide a large coverage area along with indoor signal penetration. penetration. HAAP at the same time uses much of the same equipment equipment as terrestrial terrestrial systems. A single HAAP's coverage coverage area of 100 km would cover a metropolitan city and in such cases, it is used to supp suppor ortt

comme ommerrcial cial serv servic icees

and adve advert rtis isin ing g

with with less lesser er time time and and

inve invest stme ment nt.H .HAA AAPs Ps woul would d elim elimin inat atee high high visi visibl blee ante antenn nnaa towe towers rs that that sometimes cause public resistance to terrestrial systems.HAAPs give better

25



signal quality and fewer "holes" in radio coverage. But in tunnels and deep basements, coverage requires repeaters or macrocells.HAAPs technology because it can be made to cover large areas quickly without having to t o rely on facilities in the service area could be suited to applications that are temporary or limited. Examples of such services would be coverage for onetime seasonal vents, services for remote areas, temporary services in natural disasters or emergencies.

Ring-shaped clustering simplifies the design of steer able multibeam antennas - Traditional arrangement of cells in a hexagonal pattern covering the plane is how wireless coverage is provided in terrestrial systems. But when coverage is established from an antenna mount on a circling plane or an airship rotating around its central axis due to stratospheric winds, the "natural" cell shape is a geometric pattern invariant invariant to such platform movements. movements. Such coverage is made up of a set of concentric rings. This arrangement is possible since cell shapes and their relative positions are of no consequence to the operations of a cellular system and have certain advantages over traditional pattern. Here each cell has just one or two neighbours which simplify hand off algorithms.

HAAP

GS

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Cell1 Cell2 Cell3

Cell scanning eliminates complex airborne antennas and saves power by focusing on smaller areas: The HAAP takes advantage of the "smart antenna" systems. Compared to the terrestrial system in which sectorized antennas sent and receive radio waves traveling along the ground, the HAAPs favorable "look angle" means that its energy can be readily focused onto a confined area.. Depending on the application, the beam can visit a particular cell at regul regular ar or irre irregu gula larr inter interva vals ls.. Regu Regula larr visit visitss are are suitab suitable le for for real real time time applications and services to meet quality-of-service criteria like delay and delay variance. Random timed between visits can be used in non-time-critical applications such as internet access. While the beam is pointing to one of the cells, information is exchanged between user terminals and the communications equipment on the platform: the traffic intended for that cell is buffered buffered in the interval between successive successive beam visits and then beamed down in a burst manner: likewise information in user terminal is buffered until the control signal from the platform indicates that the beam is pointing to the cell, triggering the beaming up of information bursts. If one beam is not enough to satisfy the capacity or delay requirements, two or more beams can be used to scan the cells in a staggered manner. A variant of this approach is a system in which beams have different roles "scout" beams scan the cells in search of those in which there are data ready to

27



send in user terminals; "traffic" beams visit only the cell marked by "scout" beams either randomly or according to some priority mechanism. Stratospheric radio-relay maritime communications system:-

Providing high quality telecommunications services including voice and data transmissions for maritime vessels crossing world oceans is one of the most complex problems in telecommunication engg. Now, only GEO satellite system provide multichannel, multichannel, long distance, distance, reliable reliable maritime maritime commercial commercial communication services. But due to bulky size of maritime satellite user terminals, terminals, satellite based service is expensive. expensive. The HAAPs concept concept can solve this problem for many large world ocean shipping lanes. Chains of HAAPs positioned above these lanes would operate as stratospheric radio-relay links, termin terminate ated d by coastal coastal radio center centerss at each each end of the transoc transocean eanic ic link. link. Operating Operating frequencies frequencies for user, feeder and inter-HAAP inter-HAAP links are in the bands commonly used in satellite systems. The system can provide multichannel, reliable, cost-efficient.

Maritime communication service, including voice, data, video, paging and broadcasting. Platforms can either be stationary or it may move at very low low spee speeds ds alon along g a race race-l -lik ikee path path with with endp endpoi oint ntss clos closee to land land-b -bas ased ed gateways.

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ADVANTAGES HAAPs do not require any launch vehicle, they can move under their own own power power thro through ughout out the world world or rema remain in stati stationa onary ry,, and they they can can be brought down to earth, refurbished and re-deployed. Once a platform is in position, it can immediately begin delivering service to its service area without the need to deploy a global infrastructure or constellation of platforms to operat operate. e. HAAPs HAAPs can use conven convention tional al base base station station technol technology ogy - the only diffe differe renc ncee is the the ante antenna nna.. Furt Furthe herm rmor ore, e, custo custome mers rs will will not not have have to use use different handsets.

The relatively low altitudes enable the HAAPs systems to provide a higher frequency reuse and thus higher capacity than satellite systems. The low launching costs and the possibility to repair the platforms gateway could lead to cheap wireless infrastructures per subscriber. Joint venture companies and govern governmen mentt author authoritie itiess locate located d in each each countr country y will control control the Sky Station platforms serving their region to ensure the best service offerings tailored to the local market. Offerings can change as a region develops. Each platform can be retrieved, updated, and re-launched without service interruption. Sky Station platforms are environmentally friendly. They are powered by solar technology and non-polluting fuel cells. The relatively low altitudes - compared to satellite systems - provide subscribers with short paths through the atmosphere and unobstructed line-of-sight to the platform. With small antennas and low power requirements, the HAAPs systems are suited for a wide variety of fixed and portable user terminals to meet almost any service service needed. needed. Since Since most most commun communica ication tion equipm equipment ent are locate located d in the ground station, system administration will be easier than for typical dispersed

29



terrestrial systems. The single origin of the HAAP's beams that form coverage cells on the ground opens up the potential for flexible call configuration with onboa onboard rd prog progra ramm mmab abili ilityty- a proc proces esss that that is much much easie easierr than than split splittin ting g a terres terrestri trial al cell and redesi redesignin gning g radio radio patterns patterns

to accommod accommodate ate growth growth in

terr terres estr tria iall cell cellula ularr syst system ems. s. The The fixe fixed d loca locati tion on of the the HAAP HAAPss could could be adva advant ntag ageo eous us for for situ situat atio ions ns wher wheree endend-us user er radi radios os on the the grou ground nd use use directional antennas that are pointed to the signal source as in a wireless local access system. Here the end-user radios can be reassigned to different cells (beams) without having to redirect their antennas.

HAAP based telephone systems would avoid the cost of communication links links require required d to connec connectt geogra geographic phicall ally y dispers dispersed ed base base station stationss that are required required in terrestrial terrestrial systems. This centralized centralized architecture architecture can also result in improved efficiency of channel realization- a large trunk being more efficient than multiple smaller ones. If a HAAP based system is used to provide cellular coverage, the total offered load is served by a central facility. The no: of channels do not have to be dimensioned according to busy hour traffic but to average traffic in the area, since all available channels can be shared among all the cells and local traffic peaks are smoothed out. In a HAAPS-based system the no: of channels required to cover the entire area is less than that of terrestrial systems and therefore lesser no: of base stations.

30



HAAP ISSUES In spite of many advantages there are many critical issues that the HAAPs technology is facing. The most critical issue is that- it still remains to be demonstrated that placing a platform at stratospheric altitude and "fixing" it reliably above the coverage area is possible and that it can be done in a costefficient, safe and sustained manner. It is still not proven that planes can fly at stra strato tosph spher eric ic altit altitude udess for for long long stret stretch ches es of time time,, that that dirig dirigibl ibles es can can be stationed at stratospheric altitude, and that the position of weather balloons can be controlled.

Another critical issue is the presence of winds in the stratosphere. The average minimum stratospheric wind velocity is 30-40m/s and occurs between 65 000 and 75 000ft depending on latitude. Even though HAAPs are designed to withstand these winds it may not be able to withstand sudden wind gusts resulting in temporary or total loss of communication.

The The tech techni nica call prob proble lems ms are are still still subs substa tanti ntial al:: All mate materi rial alss must must be ligh lightw tweeight ight,, resi resist stan antt to radi radian ance ce at high high alti altitu tude dess, and at leas leastt for for airshipsleakproof for helium. The engines must be strong enough to keep the platforms stationary at winds of up to 55 m/s. Flying with solar power is a possible solution. Airships especially offer enough area on their envelope for

31



the integration of solar cells. For long endurance missions only part of the collected irradiance is available for the direct propulsion. The rest has to be used to charge the energy storage for the night time. Sufficient energy has to be produced and stored for the propulsion and the telecommunication. equipment.

CONCLUSION The HALO network will provide wireless broadband communication services. The HALO network has several advantages over terrestrial wireless networks. The latter have complex geometries involving many base stations interlinked by cabling or microwaves. Moreover, each time cell splitting is used used to incre increas asee syste system m capa capaci city ty,, the the netwo network rk can can deman demand d signif signific ican antt reengineering. On the other hand, satellite networks require more expensive terminals with high power to achieve the same data rates possible through the HALO Network. Network. Also, the longer propagation propagation delays demand more complex complex

algorithms algorithms to achieve achieve interactivity. interactivity. The capacity capacity of a satellite network can be increased, but at higher expense than the HALO Network, typically only by adding more satellites. And, like terrestrial networks, reengineering of the entire satellite network may be required. The HALO Network has striking advan vantages

over

prop propo osed sed

large

LEO(LOWER

EARTH

ORBIT)

constellations, including ease of repair and rapidly evolving performance.

32



33



REFERENCES 

G.

Djukni knic,

J.

Freidenfelds,

et

al.,

"Estab tablishin shing g

Wir Wireles less

Communications Services via High-Altitude Aeronautical Platforms: A Concept Whose Time Has Come?" IEEE Communications Magazine, Magazine, September 1997



J. Martin and N. Colella, "Broadband Wireless Services from High Altitude Long Operation (HALO) Aircraft," SPIE Int'l. Symp. Voice, Video, and Data Commun.: Broadband Eng. for Multimedia Markets, Markets, Dallas, TX, Nov. 1997



N. Colella and J. Martin, "The Cone of Commerce," SPIE Int'l. Symp. Voice, Video, and Data Commun.: Broadband Eng. for Multimedia Markets, Markets, Dallas, TX, Nov. 1997



F. Akyildiz, X. Wang, and N. Colella, "HALO (High Altitude Long Oper Operat ation ion): ): a Broa Broadb dban and d Wire Wirele less ss Metr Metropo opolit litan an Area Area Netw Networ ork," k," MOMUC '99, '99, p.271–77, Nov. 1999

34



ABSTRACT Today’ Today’ss global global commun communica ication tionss infras infrastru tructur ctures es of landline landlines, s, cellula cellular r towers towers,, and satell satellite itess are are inadeq inadequat uately ely equipped equipped to support support the increa increasing sing worldwide demand for faster, better, and less expensive service. At a time when when conv conven entio tiona nall groun ground d and and sate satelli llite te syste systems ms are are faci facing ng incr increa easin sing g obstacles and spiraling costs, a low cost solution is being advocated.

This seminar focuses on airborne platforms- airships, planes, helicopters or some hybrid solutions which could operate at stratospheric altitudes for significant periods of time, be low cost and be capable of carrying sizable multipurpose multipurpose communicatio communications ns payloads. payloads. The airborne-inte airborne-internet rnet aircraft aircraft will circle overhead at an altitude of 52,000 to 69,000 feet (15,849 to 21,031 meters). At this altitude, the aircraft will be undisturbed by inclement weather and flying well above commercial air traffic. This type of network called HALO Network.

35



CONTENTS

•

INTRODUCTION

•

HALO NETWORK CONCEPTS

•

ONBOARD EQUIPMENT

•

GROUND INSTALLATIONS

•

POWER SYSTEM & MISSON REQUIREMENTS

•

VARIOUS HAAPS PROJECTS

•

APPLICATIONS

•

ADVANTAGES

•

HAAP ISSUES

•

CONCLUSION

36



•

REFERENCES

37



ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I extend my sincere thanks to Prof. P.V.Abdul Hameed, Head of the Department, Electronics and Communication Engineering, for providing me his invaluable guidance for the Seminar.

I express my sincere gratitude to my Seminar Coordinator and Staff in Char Charge ge Mr. Manoj for his his coop cooper erat atio ion n and and guid guidan ance ce in the the anoj K , for preparation and presentation of this seminar.

I also extend my sincere thanks to all the faculty members of Elec Electr tron onic icss and and Comm Commun unic icat atio ion n Depa Depart rtme ment nt for for thei theirr supp suppor ortt and and encouragement.

Sreekumar.P.G

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High Altitude Aeronautical Platforms-HAAPS- Seminar Report

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