{"id":67469,"date":"2017-08-18T21:54:35","date_gmt":"2017-08-18T13:54:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/awn-to-test-first-aircraft-broadband-clusters-this-year-2\/"},"modified":"2017-08-18T21:54:35","modified_gmt":"2017-08-18T13:54:35","slug":"awn-to-test-first-aircraft-broadband-clusters-this-year-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/awn-to-test-first-aircraft-broadband-clusters-this-year-2\/","title":{"rendered":"AWN to Test First Aircraft Broadband Clusters This Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Airborne Wireless Network<\/strong> (AWN) has successfully completed a series of flight tests with two Boeing<\/strong> 767-300 jetliners over New Mexico as proof of concept for the company\u2019s proposed air-to-air broadband network. According to AWN\u2019s Vice President of Technical Affairs Marius de Mos, now that the company has shown the system is technologically feasible, it will continue to develop its hardware and software to increase data transfer speeds to the terabit range.<\/p>\n

AWN\u2019s system, which is patented as the \u201cInfinitus Information Super Highway,\u201d has a meshed network architecture, with each aircraft functioning as individual nodes that receive and transmit wireless signals to other aircraft or ground stations. The network would provide broadband connectivity to anyone along the flight path \u2014 and AWN\u2019s ultimate goal is to provide global coverage by equipping between 25,000 and 35,000 aircraft with its \u201cmobile units.\u201d  The aircraft would operate in clusters of 10 to 30, with two to three thousand clusters planned in total, de Mos said.<\/p>\n

Rather than provide this connectivity to commercial end users, AWN intends to target Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and telecommunications companies, some of which have expressed concern about an encroaching \u201cdigital gridlock,\u201d de Mos said.<\/p>\n

As Columbia Law School professor Michael Heller observes in his book The Gridlock Economy<\/em>, \u201cprime spectrum [is] trapped in highly restricted, relatively low-value uses that can\u2019t easily be redeployed.\u201d Due to this spectrum squeeze, some telecom companies are looking at new technologies to augment or replace their existing terrestrial networks and expand their coverage zones.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically our business model is to become a pipeline for the telco industry \u2026 Primary telephone companies would be a huge part of our business,\u201d said de Mos, as well as \u201cISPs that want to send data from one place to another.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"AWN\u2019s
AWN\u2019s Vice President of Technical Affairs Marius de Mos.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

As Via Satellite <\/em>previously reported, AWN also plans to supplement the signals generated by its network with ground-based fiber optics. \u201cWe need them for the last mile of connectivity. They need us because they\u2019re running into the same gridlock issues as the major telcos,\u201d de Mos commented.<\/p>\n

AWN has already begun forming the partnerships it needs to turn its network into a reality. After striking a deal with Air Lease Corp<\/strong>, which markets to more than 80 airlines worldwide, de Mos said AWN has also been approached by other airlines interested in the income opportunity. According to de Mos, the biggest draw for airlines will be the revenue cut AWN will offer in return for installing its hardware. He did not, however, specify how large a percentage that cut will be.<\/p>\n

This first flight test proved that a link between aircrafts could be maintained with Radio Frequency (RF). The next step, de Mos said, is exploring the potential of laser-based high-speed communications within the meshed network.<\/p>\n

The company recently signed an agreement with ViaLight<\/strong>, which builds lasers that communicate with satellites and stratospheric balloons, to develop the laser links. ViaLight described the technology in a recent press release as \u201coptical fiber for the skies.\u201d<\/p>\n

While others have been able to successfully establish laser links from a fixed location to a mobile asset, de Mos pointed out that connecting two or more mobile assets is a considerably more difficult challenge. With ViaLight\u2019s support, AWN will pursue a hybrid radio-laser-based system to maintain a seamless connection if dust or clouds obscure the laser links. The two companies aim to begin testing of the laser technology before the end of this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the ground, a meshed network is pretty easy,\u201d said de Mos. \u201cIn the sky, it\u2019s very different. You have to compensate for speed and all kinds of different [factors].\u201d<\/p>\n

With its first demonstration completed, AWN is now looking to conduct its first test of a full cluster in Q3\/Q4 2018, with 20 jetliners equipped with production hardware and software, as well as AWN\u2019s self-developed pre-production antennae.<\/p>\n

AWN expects a global rollout of its network by the first half of 2019. Given today\u2019s volume of global air traffic, de Mos said he is confident the company will achieve the critical mass necessary to provide global coverage. \u201cRight now there are 25,000 aircraft available, and at least 18,000 are airborne at any time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Airborne Wireless Network (AWN) has successfully completed a series of flight tests with two Boeing 767-300 jetliners over New Mexico as proof of concept for the company\u2019s proposed air-to-air broadband network. According to AWN\u2019s Vice President of Technical Affairs Marius de Mos, now that the company has shown the system is technologically feasible, it will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67469"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}