31-03-2011, 12:38 PM
Submitted by
NIKHIL DEV.B
[attachment=11411]
ABSTRACT
The High Altitude Long Operation NetworkTM is a broadband
wireless metropolitan area network, with a star topology, whose solitary
hub is located in the atmosphere above the service area at an altitude
higher than commercial airline traffic. The HALO/Proteus airplane is the
central node of this network. It will fly at altitudes higher than 51,000 ft.
The signal footprint of the network, its "Cone of Commerce," will have a
diameter on the scale of 100 km. The initial capacity of the network will
be on the scale of 10 Gb/s, with growth beyond 100 Gb/s. The network
will serve the communications needs of each subscriber with bit rates in
the multimegabit per second range. A variety of spectrum bands licensed
by the FCC for commercial wireless services could provide the needed
millimeter wavelength carrier bandwidth. An attractive choice for the
subscriber links is the LMDS band.
The airplane's fuselage can house switching circuitry and fast
digital network functions. An MMW antenna array and its related
components will be located in a pod suspended below the aircraft
fuselage. The antenna array will produce many beams, typically more
than 100. Adjacent beams will be separated in frequency. Electronic
beamforming techniques can be used to stabilize the beams on the
ground, as the airplane flies within its station keeping volume. For the
alternative of aircraft-fixed beams, the beams will traverse over a user
location, while the airplane maintains station overhead, and the virtual
path will be changed to accomplish the beam-to-beam handoff. For each
isolated city to be served, a fleet of three aircraft will be operated in shifts
to achieve around-the-clock service. In deployments where multiple cities
will be served from a common primary flight base, the fleet will be sized
for allocating, on average, two aircraft per city to be served. Flight
operational tactics will be steadily evolved and refined to achieve
continuous presence of the node above each city. Many services will be
provided, including but not limited to T1 access, ISDN access, Web
browsing, high-resolution videoconferencing, large file transfers, and
Ethernet LAN bridging.
Chapter-1
Introduction
1.1 Introduction
Passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act and the slow growth of infrastructure
for transacting multimedia messages (those integrating voice, text, sound,
images, and video) have stimulated an intense race to deploy non-traditional infrastructure
to serve businesses and consumers at affordable prices. The game is new and
the playing field is more level than ever before. Opportunities exist for entrepreneurs
to challenge the market dominance enjoyed for years by incumbents. New types of
service providers will emerge.
An electronic "information fabric" of a quilted character—including space, atmospheric,
and terrestrial data communications layers—will emerge that promises to
someday page link every digital information device on the planet. Packet-switched data
networks will meld with connection-oriented telephony networks. Communications
infrastructures will be shared more efficiently among users to offer dramatic reductions
in cost and large increases of effective data rates. An era of inexpensive bandwidth
has begun which will transform the nature of commerce.
The convergence of innovative technologies and manufacturing capabilities affecting
aviation, millimeter wave wireless, and multi-media communications industries
enables Angel Technologies Corporation and its partners to pursue new wireless
broadband communications services. The HALO™ Network will offer ubiquitous access
to any subscriber within a "super metropolitan area" from an aircraft operating at
high altitude. The aircraft will serve as the hub of the HALO™ Network serving tens
to hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Each subscriber will be able to communicate
at multi-megabit per second data rates through a simple-to-install subscriber unit. The
HALO™ Network will be steadily evolved at a pace with the emergence of data communications
technology world-wide. The HALO™ Network will be a universal wireless
communications network solution. It will be deployed globally on a city-by-city
basis.
The equipment needed to perform the functions of this broadband wireless service
will be evolutionary in nature, not revolutionary. Most of the technology already
exists. The engineering effort will be focused primarily at adapting and integrating the
existing components and subsystems from terrestrial markets into a complete network
solution. Proven technology will be used to the maximum extent. Since the HALO™
Aircraft are operated from regional airports, the equipment will be routinely maintained
and calibrated. This also allows for equipment upgrades as technology advances
yield lower cost and weight and provide increased performance.
1.2Wireless Broadband Communications Market
There are various facts that show the strong interest in wireless communications
in the United States:
•50 million subscribers to wireless telephone service
•28 million dollars annual revenue for wireless services
•38,000 cell sites with 37 billion dollars cumulative capital investment
•40% annual growth in customers
•25 million personal computers sold each year
•50 million PC users with Internet access
"The demand for Internet services is exploding and this creates a strong demand
for broadband, high data rate service. It is expected that there will soon be a
worldwide demand for Internet service in the hundreds of millions". (Lou Gerstner,
IBM, April 1997) The growth in use of the World Wide Web and electronic commerce
will stimulate demand for broadband services.
1.3 A Broadband Wireless Metropolitan Area Network
HALO™ Aircraft Provides Wireless Broadband Services over Metropolitan Centers
An airplane specially designed for high altitude flight with a payload capacity
of approximately one ton is being developed for commercial wireless services. It will
circle at high altitudes for extended periods of time and it will serve as a stable platform
from which broadband communications services will be offered. The High Altitude
Long Operation (HALO™) Aircraft will maintain station at an altitude of 52 to
60 thousand feet by flying in a circle with a diameter of about 5 to 8 nautical miles.
Three successive shifts on station of 8 hours each can provide continuous coverage of
an area for 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Such a system can provide broadband
multimedia communications to the general public.
One such platform will cover an area of approximately 2800 square miles encompassing
a typical metropolitan area. A viewing angle of 20 degrees or higher will
be chosen to facilitate good line-of-sight coverage at millimeter wave (MMW) frequencies
(20 GHz or higher). Operation at MMW frequencies enables broadband systems
to be realized, i.e., from spectrum bandwidths of 1 to 6 GHz. MMW systems
also permit very narrow beam widths to be realized with small aperture antennas. Furthermore,
since the aircraft is above most of the earth's oxygen, links to satellite constellations
can be implemented using the frequencies overlapping the 60 GHz absorption
band for good immunity from ground-based interference and good isolation from
inter-satellite links.
The HALO™ Network can utilize a cellular pattern on the ground so that each
cell uses one of four frequency sub-bands, each having a bandwidth up to 60 MHz
each way. A fifth sub-band can be used for gateways (connections to the public network
or dedicated users). Each cell will cover an area of a few square miles. The entire
bandwidth will be reused many times to achieve total coverage throughout the
2800 square mile area served by the airborne platform. The total capacity of the network
supported by a single airborne platform can be greater than 100 Gbps. This is
comparable to terrestrial fiber-optic (FO) networks and can provide two-way broadband
multimedia services normally available only via FO networks.
The HALO™ Network provides an alternative to satellite- and ground-based
systems. Unlike satellite systems, however, the airborne system concentrates all of the
spectrum usage in certain geographic areas, which minimizes frequency coordination
problems and permits sharing of frequency with ground-based systems. Enough
power is available from the aircraft power generator to allow broadband data access
from small user terminals.
1.4 A New Layer in the Wireless Infrastructure
Raytheon TI Systems and Angel Technologies Corporation have the opportunity
to serve the growing wireless communications market by using a HALO™ Aircraft
that transmits high-speed data traffic throughout a metropolitan region. The goal
is to interconnect more than 100,000 subscribers within a metropolitan center and its
surrounding communities through a star topology network. This HALO™ Network
has the benefits of low cost, high flexibility, and high quality of service.
HALO™ Aircraft provide a new layer in the traditional hierarchy of wireless
communications. The HALO™ Network can be thought of as a "tall tower" approach
that provides better line of sight to customers without the high cost of deploying and
operating a satellite constellation.
NIKHIL DEV.B
[attachment=11411]
ABSTRACT
The High Altitude Long Operation NetworkTM is a broadband
wireless metropolitan area network, with a star topology, whose solitary
hub is located in the atmosphere above the service area at an altitude
higher than commercial airline traffic. The HALO/Proteus airplane is the
central node of this network. It will fly at altitudes higher than 51,000 ft.
The signal footprint of the network, its "Cone of Commerce," will have a
diameter on the scale of 100 km. The initial capacity of the network will
be on the scale of 10 Gb/s, with growth beyond 100 Gb/s. The network
will serve the communications needs of each subscriber with bit rates in
the multimegabit per second range. A variety of spectrum bands licensed
by the FCC for commercial wireless services could provide the needed
millimeter wavelength carrier bandwidth. An attractive choice for the
subscriber links is the LMDS band.
The airplane's fuselage can house switching circuitry and fast
digital network functions. An MMW antenna array and its related
components will be located in a pod suspended below the aircraft
fuselage. The antenna array will produce many beams, typically more
than 100. Adjacent beams will be separated in frequency. Electronic
beamforming techniques can be used to stabilize the beams on the
ground, as the airplane flies within its station keeping volume. For the
alternative of aircraft-fixed beams, the beams will traverse over a user
location, while the airplane maintains station overhead, and the virtual
path will be changed to accomplish the beam-to-beam handoff. For each
isolated city to be served, a fleet of three aircraft will be operated in shifts
to achieve around-the-clock service. In deployments where multiple cities
will be served from a common primary flight base, the fleet will be sized
for allocating, on average, two aircraft per city to be served. Flight
operational tactics will be steadily evolved and refined to achieve
continuous presence of the node above each city. Many services will be
provided, including but not limited to T1 access, ISDN access, Web
browsing, high-resolution videoconferencing, large file transfers, and
Ethernet LAN bridging.
Chapter-1
Introduction
1.1 Introduction
Passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act and the slow growth of infrastructure
for transacting multimedia messages (those integrating voice, text, sound,
images, and video) have stimulated an intense race to deploy non-traditional infrastructure
to serve businesses and consumers at affordable prices. The game is new and
the playing field is more level than ever before. Opportunities exist for entrepreneurs
to challenge the market dominance enjoyed for years by incumbents. New types of
service providers will emerge.
An electronic "information fabric" of a quilted character—including space, atmospheric,
and terrestrial data communications layers—will emerge that promises to
someday page link every digital information device on the planet. Packet-switched data
networks will meld with connection-oriented telephony networks. Communications
infrastructures will be shared more efficiently among users to offer dramatic reductions
in cost and large increases of effective data rates. An era of inexpensive bandwidth
has begun which will transform the nature of commerce.
The convergence of innovative technologies and manufacturing capabilities affecting
aviation, millimeter wave wireless, and multi-media communications industries
enables Angel Technologies Corporation and its partners to pursue new wireless
broadband communications services. The HALO™ Network will offer ubiquitous access
to any subscriber within a "super metropolitan area" from an aircraft operating at
high altitude. The aircraft will serve as the hub of the HALO™ Network serving tens
to hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Each subscriber will be able to communicate
at multi-megabit per second data rates through a simple-to-install subscriber unit. The
HALO™ Network will be steadily evolved at a pace with the emergence of data communications
technology world-wide. The HALO™ Network will be a universal wireless
communications network solution. It will be deployed globally on a city-by-city
basis.
The equipment needed to perform the functions of this broadband wireless service
will be evolutionary in nature, not revolutionary. Most of the technology already
exists. The engineering effort will be focused primarily at adapting and integrating the
existing components and subsystems from terrestrial markets into a complete network
solution. Proven technology will be used to the maximum extent. Since the HALO™
Aircraft are operated from regional airports, the equipment will be routinely maintained
and calibrated. This also allows for equipment upgrades as technology advances
yield lower cost and weight and provide increased performance.
1.2Wireless Broadband Communications Market
There are various facts that show the strong interest in wireless communications
in the United States:
•50 million subscribers to wireless telephone service
•28 million dollars annual revenue for wireless services
•38,000 cell sites with 37 billion dollars cumulative capital investment
•40% annual growth in customers
•25 million personal computers sold each year
•50 million PC users with Internet access
"The demand for Internet services is exploding and this creates a strong demand
for broadband, high data rate service. It is expected that there will soon be a
worldwide demand for Internet service in the hundreds of millions". (Lou Gerstner,
IBM, April 1997) The growth in use of the World Wide Web and electronic commerce
will stimulate demand for broadband services.
1.3 A Broadband Wireless Metropolitan Area Network
HALO™ Aircraft Provides Wireless Broadband Services over Metropolitan Centers
An airplane specially designed for high altitude flight with a payload capacity
of approximately one ton is being developed for commercial wireless services. It will
circle at high altitudes for extended periods of time and it will serve as a stable platform
from which broadband communications services will be offered. The High Altitude
Long Operation (HALO™) Aircraft will maintain station at an altitude of 52 to
60 thousand feet by flying in a circle with a diameter of about 5 to 8 nautical miles.
Three successive shifts on station of 8 hours each can provide continuous coverage of
an area for 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Such a system can provide broadband
multimedia communications to the general public.
One such platform will cover an area of approximately 2800 square miles encompassing
a typical metropolitan area. A viewing angle of 20 degrees or higher will
be chosen to facilitate good line-of-sight coverage at millimeter wave (MMW) frequencies
(20 GHz or higher). Operation at MMW frequencies enables broadband systems
to be realized, i.e., from spectrum bandwidths of 1 to 6 GHz. MMW systems
also permit very narrow beam widths to be realized with small aperture antennas. Furthermore,
since the aircraft is above most of the earth's oxygen, links to satellite constellations
can be implemented using the frequencies overlapping the 60 GHz absorption
band for good immunity from ground-based interference and good isolation from
inter-satellite links.
The HALO™ Network can utilize a cellular pattern on the ground so that each
cell uses one of four frequency sub-bands, each having a bandwidth up to 60 MHz
each way. A fifth sub-band can be used for gateways (connections to the public network
or dedicated users). Each cell will cover an area of a few square miles. The entire
bandwidth will be reused many times to achieve total coverage throughout the
2800 square mile area served by the airborne platform. The total capacity of the network
supported by a single airborne platform can be greater than 100 Gbps. This is
comparable to terrestrial fiber-optic (FO) networks and can provide two-way broadband
multimedia services normally available only via FO networks.
The HALO™ Network provides an alternative to satellite- and ground-based
systems. Unlike satellite systems, however, the airborne system concentrates all of the
spectrum usage in certain geographic areas, which minimizes frequency coordination
problems and permits sharing of frequency with ground-based systems. Enough
power is available from the aircraft power generator to allow broadband data access
from small user terminals.
1.4 A New Layer in the Wireless Infrastructure
Raytheon TI Systems and Angel Technologies Corporation have the opportunity
to serve the growing wireless communications market by using a HALO™ Aircraft
that transmits high-speed data traffic throughout a metropolitan region. The goal
is to interconnect more than 100,000 subscribers within a metropolitan center and its
surrounding communities through a star topology network. This HALO™ Network
has the benefits of low cost, high flexibility, and high quality of service.
HALO™ Aircraft provide a new layer in the traditional hierarchy of wireless
communications. The HALO™ Network can be thought of as a "tall tower" approach
that provides better line of sight to customers without the high cost of deploying and
operating a satellite constellation.
